Sino-US trade war not to seriously affect Thailand

BANGKOK, June 20 (TNA) - The Ministry of Commerce has reiterated that a trade war between the United States and China should not have any serious negative impact on Thailand, but on the entire world trade and investment system. Pimchanok Vonkorpon, Director-General of the ministry's Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO), made the latest assessment on Wednesday, in response to a US decision late last week on imposing a stiff tariff on 1,102 items of imported products from China worth about 50 billion US dollars, focused on those under the "Made in China 2025" policy, and China's immediate retaliation by imposing a stiff tariff on 649 items of imported US goods worth in a comparable amount, focused on politically-sensitive US products. Pimchanok said Thailand should not be seriously affected by the ongoing Sino-US trade war, but should probably face an indirect impact in the short run, and the Thai Kingdom should, instead, benefit from exporting some more products to the two major markets, worth about one billion US dollars additionally. The TPSO chief admitted that the ongoing Sino-US trade war should, somewhat, shake the world trade and investment system inevitably, resulting in the fluctuating financial and capital markets in the short term due to international investors' concerns over uncertain policies of Washington and Beijing for a certain period of time when there might be a delay in their imports of Thai products. However, there have been no signs of irregular imports of products from China or the United States in the feared dumping aspect so far. The TPSO chief foresaw, meanwhile, that the ongoing Sino-US trade war should lead to a reformed structure of the international trade system, under which trading partners of the two major markets, including Thailand, would explore new markets to ease risk factors against their future exports. The TPSO chief acknowledged, nonetheless, that an increase in the US key interest rate, expected later this year, should be beneficial to Thai exporters who could expand their shipments of goods to overseas markets, as the Thai baht should depreciate to a certain extent. According to the senior Thai official, Washington and Beijing are likely to review their tough trade measures reciprocally in the near future to protect their long-term interest, which should then relieve the ongoing tension on the world trade. (TNA)