POLITICS
PHUSADEE ARUNMAS
The president of the Rice Exporters Association said yesterday he was not convinced by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's explanation why Thailand missed the opportunity to sell rice to the Philippines, calling his defence ''unacceptable''. ''The prime minister's defence doesn't make sense, and everybody in the rice industry is fully aware that what he said was not the truth,'' said Chookiat Ophaswongse.
Mr Samak said during the censure debate in parliament yesterday that he took a proposal by Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan for a government-to-government deal with the Philippines off the June 10 cabinet meeting agenda.
The withdrawal meant Thailand failed to place a bid by the June 13 deadline set by Manila, which wanted to buy 600,000 tonnes of rice to bolster its stocks.
The kingdom also missed an important opportunity to shore up domestic rice prices by exporting the grain.
Last week the Philippines said Vietnam won the contract with a sale of US$940 (31,900 baht) a tonne.
Mr Samak said the proposal was withdrawn because he made a promise to the Philippines president during his visit to Manila in May that Thailand would sell rice at ''friendly'' prices to the Philippines on a government-to-government basis, on the condition that no bids or prior cabinet approval were required.
The prime minister also showed his dissatisfaction with Commerce Ministry officials assigned to sell rice to Malaysia.
Mr Chookiat defended the ministry officials handling the issue, saying rice traders in his association felt uneasy about the prime minister's remark.
During his visit to Malaysia in April, the prime minister agreed to sell 500,000 tonnes at US$850 (28,500 baht) per tonne.
However, the Foreign Trade Department was assigned to handle the matter, and it allowed Thai exporters to sell 200,000 tonnes of rice to Malaysia at a price of US$940 per tonne, much higher than Mr Samak's promise.
''We [the exporters] can confirm that at the time the prime minister agreed to sell rice to Malaysia, the market price of rice had soared to almost US$1,000 [33,500 baht] per tonne. We therefore didn't understand where the prime minister got the US$850 per tonne price from,'' said Mr Chookiat.
He said the Malaysian deal probably made the prime minister lose face, and possibly led him to drop the Commerce Ministry's proposal for the Philippines deal and set up committees to handle the rice issue afterwards.
''All of this derived from the prime minister's anger. His action is unacceptable, as it made the country lose export opportunities,'' he said.
Mr Chookiat also said the prime minister's statement during the debate that Thailand would sell 2.1 million tonnes of rice from the state stockpile would also exacerbate problems in the rice market.
This was not an appropriate time to drain the stockpile as greater supplies would soon come on to the market.
Selling now would add to market supplies and push down prices.
Prasit Boonchuey, president of the Thai Farmers Association, said the government's rice policy was still unclear and was a failure.
The state-run rice pledging scheme would be unnecessary if the government showed effective rice management.
''The rice issue has been politicised. The government expects political gain,'' said Mr Prasit.
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