China urged to cut trade barriers and buy Thai rice

BANGKOK, November 19 (TNA) - The private sector has urged the Thai government to convince China to reduce its trade barriers against Thailand and buy Thai rice under government-to-government (G-to-G) deals. Chookiat Ophaswongse, Honorary President of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, proposed on Monday that, as Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao is scheduled to pay an official visit to Thailand from November 20-21, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra should take the opportunity to convince Beijing to reduce its trade barriers against Thailand so that Thai investors can further expand their businesses in China. Chookiat acknowledged although Thailand and China are good trade partners and Thailand has considerably exported its products to China, China has imposed many trade barriers against Thailand. According to the Thai Rice Exporters Association chief, the amount of Thai rice exported to China from January to October last year stood at over 216,000 tonnes and rose by 1.4 per cent, but the amount in the same period this year was only 91,460 tonnes, a plunge by 57.8 per cent. The Thai Rice Exporters Association chief said that Thai rice exporters, therefore, want the Thai government to seal a G-to-G rice export deal with China during the upcoming visit to Thailand by the Chinese prime minister, as China has huge demands for rice, noting that China has cut its imports of Thai rice due to Thai grains' higher prices than those of Vietnam and Cambodia by 150 US dollars per tonne on average. The Thai Rice Exporters Association honorary president predicted that Thailand should, however, export over 7 million tonnes of rice next year, pointing out that the Thai government's rice pledging scheme, which sets the pledging price at 15,000-20,000 baht per tonne of paddy, has resulted in expensive Thai rice in overseas markets and many countries' having turned to buy rice from other countries, including Vietnam, India and Pakistan instead. (TNA)