Thailand sidesteps trade spat

Thailand sidesteps trade spat

The deepening trade spat between the US and China is unlikely to have a direct impact on Thai exports, insists the Commerce Ministry's trade policy and strategy office.

Pimchanok Vonkorpon, director-general of the Commerce Ministry's Trade Policy and Strategy Office, said the trade rift will result in more demand for imports from Thailand.

US President Donald Trump threatened to escalate the trade tussle with China into an all-out war on Monday, promising to impose massive tariffs on Chinese goods unless it reverses course on its tariff regime.

Mr Trump directed the US Trade Representative's office to begin drawing up a list totalling US$200 billion in Chinese goods to be hit with a 10% tariff.

Monday's announcement comes just three days after Mr Trump officially announced that tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods would be subject to a new 25% tariff starting July 6.

The tariffs were the result of an investigation by the Commerce Department into the theft of US intellectual property by Chinese companies.

After Mr Trump's announcement, China rolled out retaliatory tariffs on $50 billion worth of US goods and promised to stand firm against US actions.

In addition to the second set of tariffs, the US president also threatened to hit China with a third wave of measures -- an additional 10% on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods -- if China rolled out its own tariffs.

"Given the impact from both sides, we expect Thailand will benefit from exporting certain products to replace the affected items subject to higher tariffs from the two giant economies, but the values are unlikely to be significant -- just $1 billion or 0.42% of the export value in 2017," Ms Pimchanok said. "But Thailand needs to come up with strategies to speed up the expansion of partnerships with other countries, on top of new free trade area talks."

Ms Pimchanok said the weakening baht will also ease the pressure on Thai exports.

Ghanyapad Tantipipatpong, chairwoman of the Thai National Shippers' Council, said the deepening trade rift is unlikely to put a serious damper on Thai exports.

Ms Ghanyapad said the likelier scenario is more opportunities for Thai exports to China to replace US products, as well as US goods replacing those Chinese goods that are subjected to higher tariffs.

She also warned that Thailand could become a dumping ground for certain products from the two giant economies.

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