Philippines urged to open market for Thai farm products, Canada to extend GSP for Thai goods

BANGKOK, December 11 (TNA) - Thailand has urged the Philippines to more open up its market for Thai rice and poultry and Canada to extend its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for Thai goods. Thailand's Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisal told journalists of the updates on Wednesday, noting that he had discussions with trade representatives of the Philippines and Canada and several other countries while attending the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Bali Island in Indonesia from December 3-6, 2013. Niwatthamrong said in his talks with Gregory Domingo, the Philippine Secretary of Trade and Industry, he asked Manila to import more Thai rice. The Philippines has set its import quota for Thai rice at about 100,000 tonnes annually, but its actual imports have been much lower than the quota. Niwatthamrong also asked the Philippines to lift its import ban on Thai chicken, as the ban has been imposed since past outbreaks of the avian influenza and Philippine authorities have checked Thai chicken for several rounds and have already accepted its quality. Thailand expects the Philippines to end the ban when a Philippine minister visits Thailand later this month so that Thailand can export 20,000-30,000 tonnes of chicken to the Philippines yearly. The Philippines, in the meantime, sought Thailand's assistance in a lawsuit concerning cigarette taxation, but the case is being tried by a court; so, the Thai deputy premier could only receive the written request from the Philippines and forward it to a relevant agency. Besides, the Thai deputy premier discussed with Edward Fast, Canadian Minister for International Trade on the progress of bilateral negotiations on a Thai-Canadian free trade agreement (FTA), expected to be approved by the Thai Parliament by early next year. As trade privileges for Thai products under Canada’s GSP expires on January 1, 2015, Thailand asked Canada to extend the GSP or cut import tariffs on Thai products which have enjoyed the Canadian trade privileges until the bilateral FTA is concluded.(TNA)