Thailand to accelerate conclusion of RCEP

BANGKOK, February 22 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Commerce, is accelerating negotiations with other regional countries towards the conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a new free trade agreement (FTA) between member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 10-member bloc's six dialogue partners. Pimchanok Vonkorpon, Director-General of the ministry's Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO), told journalists of the move on Friday, reasoning that a quick conclusion of the RCEP between ASEAN and Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand should help reduce the disadvantage in tariffs Thailand has had with other trading partners and should then boost Thai exports to foreign markets. Pimchanok said that the move followed a drop in Thai exports by 5.65 per cent year-on-year in January 2019, the third consecutive decline, caused mainly by impacts from the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. "Apart from the impacts from the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing, which could last until the end of next month, a shrink in Thai exports last month was also caused by other expectedly-short term factors, including declining world oil and gold prices, as well as unstable foreign exchange rates and the appreciation of the Thai baht with higher prices of locally-grown major economic crops, namely rice, tapioca, chicken, seafood and natural rubber", the TPSO chief pointed out. The TPSO chief revealed that to help boost Thai exports later this year, her ministry will also help explore new potential markets for Thai exports, particularly more value-added products, including those from the domestic food and industrial sectors, while also promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in the sectors to further upgrade Thai products. According to the TPSO chief, Thai exports need to reach about 23 billion US dollars a month, 22 billion US dollars a month and 21 billion US dollars a month later this year in order to achieve the export growth of either 8 per cent year-on-year, or 5 per cent year-on-year or 3 per cent year-on-year in 2019. The TPSO chief noted, meanwhile, that Thailand remained to gain a trade surplus last month if imports of military weapons and equipment for regional drills were excluded. (TNA)