Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai has ordered the International Trade Promotion Department to assess the impact of trade and measures from the Israel-Hamas war, along with plans to expand the market, focusing on secondary cities.
Mr Phumtham, who is also deputy prime minister, also instructed trade delegations to accelerate efforts at finding potential markets in an effort to boost exports to at least 12.4 billion baht in the last three months of this year.
Speaking after talks with senior-ranking officials of the International Trade Promotion Department on Wednesday, Mr Phumtham said he has ordered the department to monitor the export situation and closely observe whether it has had an impact on trade with other countries amid the Israel-Hamas war although preliminary reports indicated that trade with Israel has not been affected.
"The Israel-Hamas war, which shows no signs of ending, will definitely affect the world. We need to prepare measures to offset the impact, allowing us to address any issues promptly to avoid any negative impact on overall exports," he said.
Additionally, the department has been tasked with finding ways to expand markets and increase exports to target countries such as China, along with the Middle East, Oceania and South Asia.
The department has been instructed to identify opportunities for Thailand by focusing on various secondary cities and using existing commercial counsellor mechanisms to investigate, study and consider creating more memoranda of understanding with such secondary cities to further open trade doors for Thailand.
The commerce minister said he is ready to travel abroad to build relationships and organise trade roadshows to create more export opportunities.
At the same time, according to Mr Phumtham, he has also requested the department's officials provide assistance to entrepreneurs, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to enhance their export opportunities, aligning with the government's income generation policy.
Training and development efforts should be result-oriented, focusing not only on quantity but also on quality, examining how training and development have led to growth and expanded export opportunities, he said.
The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) recently projected the Israel-Hamas war to have a minor negative impact on exports to Israel, ranging from 0.1% to 1.7%.
The UTCC assessed the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on exports given three scenarios.
A prolonged conflict was assessed as a 30% likelihood, with the university projecting the impact on export value to be US$370 million, leading to a 0.1% contraction.
If a prolonged conflict results in transport routes closing, assessed at a 10% likelihood, the impact is estimated at $850 million, leading to a 0.3% contraction.
If the conflict spreads across the Middle East, assessed at a 5% likelihood, the impact is estimated at $4.77 billion, leading to a 1.7% contraction.
The university has predicted exports to contract by 2% this year compared with 5.7% growth in 2022, with the figures expected to rebound to 3.6% growth in 2024.
