Parliament okays agricultural product quotas for export to EU, UK

By THE NATION

 

 

The Department of Trade Negotiations has received approval from Parliament for its draft on agricultural products quotas for export to the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) after Britain left the EU, also known as Brexit.

 

“From January 1 onwards, 30 Thai agricultural products would receive import quotas from both the EU and the UK, while six additional products would receive special quota and would not have to compete with other exporting countries,” said Auramon Supthaweethum, the department’s director-general.

 

“The department has adjusted the quotas based on export volume to each territory. For example, products that the UK has imported more than the EU will have a bigger UK quota, and vice versa. However, the quotas for both territories will not be lower than previous quotas Thailand received before Brexit.”

 

Six products that Thailand can export to the UK and the EU without any competitors are: salted chicken, cooked chicken, processed chicken, cooked duck, processed duck and processed sardine.

 

“Under the new quota, Thai exporters would pay Bt2.1 billion less in tariff per year,” she added.

 

Thailand has been exporting more than 30 agricultural products to the EU and the UK, including white rice, brown rice, frozen chicken and duck, tapioca, tapioca flour, processed fish, frozen prawn, pasta and biscuit.

 

In 2019, trade volume between Thailand and the EU totalled Bt1.15 trillion, 14 per cent of which, or Bt230 billion, was from trading with the UK.

 

In the first 10 months of 2020, the trade volume with the EU was Bt983 billion, while Bt127 billion came from trading with the UK.

 

Key non-agricultural exports to the EU are computer components and equipments, gems and jewellery and air conditioners, while key non-agricultural exports to the UK are car and motorcycle components and electrical circuit boards.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30399212

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-12-07

 

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'Under the new quota exporters would pay less tariff per year'

A bit confusing:

The new quota relates to volume, not tariff rate.

- New quota will not be less than previous quota, implying that volume for some products might be greater. That means greater export value which is unrelated to any applied tariff.

- Tariffs are applied by receiving country, thus a cost to the importer (and likely passed through to its customers), not the exporter (Thailand).

This article would be perfectly fine if mention of tariffs was omitted. Export of potentially higher product volume increases Thailand's GDP.