AS US does not suffer a high trade deficit with Thailand this country will not be directly impacted by US President Donald Trump’s policies and in fact has an opportunity to increase exports because China and Mexico appear to be facing trade barriers, Thai News Agency said today (Feb. 6).
Pimchanok Vonkorpon, director-general of the Commerce Ministry’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office said that while US President Trump issued eight executive orders in two weeks of taking office bilateral trade between the two country should not be affected because Thailand’s trade surplus is around US$12 billion while ranking 11th on the list of countries with whom US has a trade deficit.
For this reason Ms Pimchanok believes Thai exports will grow at 2.5-3% this year with Thailand also benefiting from US pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Among the products that will benefit from the current trade environment are computers and parts, electrical goods and parts, plastic pellets, iron, jewelry and accessories, frozen seafood and fuel and energy with business operators urged to be ready and consider going there to market their products.
Moreover there is also opportunity for US to upgrade Thailand on intellectual property rights and Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) if previous standards are still used.
Exporters are urged to closely follow these issues and carefully invest and manage currency exchange risk.
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Top: A ship full of containers carrying Thai exports overseas. Photo: Paul_the_Seeker (CC-BY-2.0)
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