Thursday 23 November 2006

Thailand asks Korea to liberalise agricultural trade terms

BANGKOK, Nov 23 (TNA) — Commerce Minister Krirkkrai Jirapaet on Wednesday reiterated that Thailand would not sign an ASEAN-Korea free trade area (FTA) agreement unless Korea agrees to liberalise its policies on agricultural products, especially rice.

Speaking after a meeting with Han Tae-kyu, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Thailand, who paid a courtesy call on him, Mr. Krirkkrai said he had explained to the envoy Thailand’s trade policy direction under the sufficiency economy concept.

He told the ambassador that Thailand still wanted Korean investors to invest in the country and liberalise its agricultural produce market.

Progress in trade negotiations among members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the World Trade Organization talks under the Doha round was also discussed at the meeting.

Also, Mr. Krirkkrai and the envoy reviewed progress in negotiations for the ASEAN-Korea FTA agreement.

Thailand is the sole member of ASEAN which has failed to sign an FTA pact with Seoul, while other ASEAN members had already signed agreements since May 2006. The pact is set to become effective early next year, if signed.

The failure stemmed from Korea’s reluctance to agree to Thailand’s call for liberalisation of the market for agricultural products, particularly rice. The Thai view is that Thailand would lose benefits it should receive from Korea if it is endorsed in its present language

Unless the negotiations between ASEAN and Korea are concluded, he said, it would block a progress in efforts to push for FTAs in East Asia under the ASEAN+3 framework.

"We want Korea to consider increasing Thailand’s retail rice trade quota to 30,000 tonnes as agreed originally at the WTO meeting. We also ask that Thai rice enter the Korean market," he said.

Korea is Thailand’s eighth ranked trade partner, with bilateral trade value between the two countries totalling US$6.14 billion.

In the first nine months of this year, the trade value increased by 25.5 per cent to US$5.67 billion, with Thailand still experiencing a trade deficit with Korea of US$1.84 billion.