PepsiCo Pulls Out of Burma.

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		PepsiCo Pulls Out of Burma 	
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                          By SKIP WOLLENBERG 
                          AP Business Writer 
                          Monday, January 27, 1997 5:43 pm EST 

                          NEW YORK (AP) -- PepsiCo Inc. said Monday it is 
severing its last business ties to
                          Burma, becoming the biggest company to withdraw 
from the country over its alleged human
                          rights abuses. 

                          PepsiCo spokesman Keith Hughes said Monday that 
the $30 billion conglomerate has
                          stopped shipping soft drink syrup to its 
Burmese bottler. 

                          ``This sends an important signal to companies 
currently doing business in Burma that this is
                          not the time to invest in Burma,'' said David 
M. Schilling, an executive with the Interfaith
                          Center on Corporate Responsibility, an 
association of 275 religious communities and
                          pension funds. 

                          Companies that have already left Burma include 
Eddie Bauer, Levi Strauss amd Liz
                          Claiborne. 

                          PepsiCo said in May that it was selling its 40 
percent stake in the bottling venture for
                          business reasons and in response to public 
sentiment toward Burma's military regime. But it
                          continued supplying the syrup. 

                          The final cutoff was made ``based on our 
assessment of the spirit of U.S. government
                          foreign policy toward Burma,'' Hughes said. 

                          Hughes said PepsiCo has been assured the 
bottler will ``take steps to make sure all
                          production and distribution of our products in 
Burma are ceased by May 31.'' 

                          The United States cut off economic aid to Burma 
after the military crushed a 1988 popular
                          uprising and renamed the former British colony 
Myanmar, its pre-colonial name. President
                          Clinton last year barred Burmese government 
officials from U.S. visits, but some American
                          companies operate there. 

                          The Burmese bottling venture, Pepsi-Cola 
Products Myanmar Ltd., was formed in 1991
                          with businessman U Thein Tun. Industry sources 
said it had sales of $3.2 million in 1995 and
                          accounted for about 80 percent of all soft 
drink sales in the country. 

                          Protests last year came from Pepsi's big target 
market -- high school and college students --
                          and cost the company business. Harvard 
University turned down Pepsi for a $1 million
                          contract and Stanford decided not to allow a 
Taco Bell, a PepsiCo restaurant, on campus
                          after 2,000 students petitioned the university 
to sever ties with companies doing business in
                          Burma. 

[The Associated Press, 27 January 1997].

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