Banker warns of dire effect on Thai economy if fishing ban is enforced

[Time Traveller]

I always thought that the main problems facing the country was people cutting corners and then expecting others not to notice.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Time Traveller

[Suffinator]

They government has almost impossible situations on their hands. Past governments and state officials have done little or nothing to correct them and now they are all falling into the General's hands at about the same time. I hope he can resolve them. I don't envy his position.

Fair comment to a degree BUT where did he manage to get his vast wealth from? What this country needs is someone willing to be transparent and unable to be corrupted. Prayut has already been asked to explain his wealth but like most in the elitist camp he refuses to do so ... something to hide perhaps? Who knows?

The other mantra is that he didn't have to take the job but in fact he engaged in an illegal act and took power by force thereby over-throwing a democratically elected government; whether you liked that government or not is irrelevant.

[murphya33]

Notice the banker didn't say fantastic and positive effect on reducing the slavery trade but only talks about the dire effects on the economy. Very compassionate guy.

[soalbundy]

Reminds me of 'Dads Army' ''Don't panic,don't panic.''

[rethaier]

Greed and corruption, Thai mantra. They only have themselves to blame.

ALL countries carrying our fishing, need to observe international laws regarding fishing areas, size of catch, type of catch.

That Thailand flouts the law in so many ways, does not gain much sympathy from other fishing nations.

I get especially annoyed when I see them taking small fish, crabs, and squid. There does not appear to be any sense of conservation.

[soalbundy]

Notice the banker didn't say fantastic and positive effect on reducing the slavery trade but only talks about the dire effects on the economy. Very compassionate guy.

The economy is not everything but without a good economy you have nothing.

[ThaidaGwaii]

Banker probably own fishing boats. Banker does not care about fish a 100 years from now. Banker knows about making money now, not making money later. Banker sucks.

[soalbundy]

Greed and corruption, Thai mantra. They only have themselves to blame.

ALL countries carrying our fishing, need to observe international laws regarding fishing areas, size of catch, type of catch.

That Thailand flouts the law in so many ways, does not gain much sympathy from other fishing nations.

I get especially annoyed when I see them taking small fish, crabs, and squid. There does not appear to be any sense of conservation.

Conservation? You do realize that you are in Thailand don't you ?

[rethaier]

Greed and corruption, Thai mantra. They only have themselves to blame.

ALL countries carrying our fishing, need to observe international laws regarding fishing areas, size of catch, type of catch.

That Thailand flouts the law in so many ways, does not gain much sympathy from other fishing nations.

I get especially annoyed when I see them taking small fish, crabs, and squid. There does not appear to be any sense of conservation.

Conservation? You do realize that you are in Thailand don't you ?

My point exactly.

[RigPig]

They have had enough time in reality, it´s not just 6 months!!! They should get what they deserve and more!!! Everyone on the down side of this deal should be compensated with more than the usual Thai style compensation IMO.

[Johnnie99]

Just as, I suspect, the slave trade collapsed.

[GreasyFingers]

If the EU happens to place a sanction on Thailand' fishing industry.....you can bet others will follow.......

One can only hope that the Thais take heed of this warning and actually do something concrete to solve this issue!

Yes, they could put sanctions on the EU to stop their "low life" coming here

[bangkokheat]

thailand has nothing to worry about, they are probably scurrying around looking for new buyers for their seafood, why should they at all be concerned, theres plenty of other kids in the sandpit

[SOTIRIOS]

.....the decks can only be stacked inside the country......

....a good wake up call.....

...now follow through with some basic human rights for foreigners..

..and eliminate unfair business practices and laws .........

[crazykopite]

The Thai airline industry failed miserably in a recent inspection, The Thai fisheries industry is under great pressure, TheThai baht has for to long been propped up, The 400,000 Chinese songkran visitors failed to turn up and Tourism to the Kingdom is well down than what was expected, all this leads to a total meltdown and it will happen sooner rather than later. Show me a country that is ruled by the military that has a very successful economy as far as I am aware there has never been one !

[Time Traveller]

Notice the banker didn't say fantastic and positive effect on reducing the slavery trade but only talks about the dire effects on the economy. Very compassionate guy.

I think you are misinterpreting the comments.. Government's don't want to be lectured about ethics by bankers. But they do listen to bankers about economic consequences of policies.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Time Traveller

[Cent]

There is nothing article 44 can do for this. It is too late. They all knew this years ago and did nothing except rake in the money they were making.

Exactly true. He inherited all the previous corruption, the slavery, the previous money made from ILLEGAL things that are coming to light all across the spectrum and open to the world to see. And now he doesn't like what is happening when the world hears the truth of it all. You want to be the big wheel now, dude, try being a real leader and stop the total corruption that will soon destroy your country and the economy. But I doubt he has the balls to do so. It's all a whitewash, and he is no better than the rest of the pols who want to rule the country, and have for many decades. It's all a scam. Why? Because they all have people who they are beholden to. The corruption is endemic to the soul of the country.

[bureaucrazy]

I think long term the fishing industry is finished as more and more radiation seeps into the pacific from fukushima , The disaster has been ongoing for four years and no government wants anything to do with it news is limited as the fear of panic may arise in populations the world over forget fish as the oceans are joined.

What gammon,the oceans maybe joined but there is such a thing as currents,why do you think most of the stuff sucked away by the tusnami,has ended up in the north pacific and washed up on the west coast of Canada,Usa,the reason the thai fishing industry will destroy itself is by overfishing,exactly what they are doing right now.

@shirtless .. do you have any reliable source for your paranoia over radioactive fish? Sounds like nonsense to me.

@marko kok prong .. spot on re: overfishing. My mrs (thai) refuses to believe that it's possible for humans to reduce the number of fish in the sea through fishing. It's a bit of a sore spot because she's absolutely gutted at the thought of throwing back an undersized fish in Aus.

[willyumiii]

It is past time Thailand actually did something to stop slavery in the fishing industry.

Lip service is not enough.

I am very disappointed that my country ( USA ) has done nothing too stop the import of Thai sea food and that people are still purchasing it in the grocery stores.

With America's ugly history of slavery and they high price they paid as a result of it, they should be leading the fight to stop it!

Kudos to the EU for the efforts they are making.

Breaking the Thai fishing industry financially is the only way to get them to get in line.

[wabothai]

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Reminds me of 'Dads Army' ''Don't panic,don't panic.''

"Permission to speak sir".

NO !!

[Fat Haggis]

They government has almost impossible situations on their hands. Past governments and state officials have done little or nothing to correct them and now they are all falling into the General's hands at about the same time. I hope he can resolve them. I don't envy his position.

He didn't have to take on the role of PM, a poor tradesman always blames his tools!! You reap what you sow and deflecting it back to the previous inept crowd is expected from a particular quarter. He was warned about the impact of Martial Law on the economy by REAL economists and financial experts and he dismissed these as being anti junta and that nobody understood Thainess or the situation in the country.

There is NOTHING stopping him from stepping down and bringing in a cabinet where he has the experts, the losses occurred in the Thai economy due to the coup have been Staggering if the economic experts outside of Thailand are to be believed.

Bottom line, it's happening on his watch, he and he alone brought in people like Kobakarn and put his buddies in positions they had no experience in.

Yes he inherited a mess, but he wanted that position so badly, and now has ultimate control with no accountability with article 44, he has to accept the bad shit along with the good!!

Knowing his demeanor, the man is just too proud to step down or even ask for help from technocrats. I will give him credit for trying but honestly he and his generals are totally inadequate in collective skill and expertise to solve the economic and political headwinds. His only solution is to have the election as soon as possibility can even if it means another 8/9 months of economic struggle and an ugly charter. I also think the EU will give an extension to the outright ban if the junta show some degree of efforts inner-structuring the fishery industry. Really to expect a result in 6 months is purely insane and not possible.

Eric, pride comes before a fall, and all to easy to go from hero to zero in a short period of time.

[shaurene]

They will not listen to any one on the outside who would give good advice, same with Thai Air the government ministers have got their noses to far into the company, the answere is stearing them in the fave, they need a foriegn CEO, the ministers should keep their noses out and these free flights should be done away with.

To many officials in the fishing industry getting a very nice back hand to keep the rules as they where.

Nothing will change.

So sad.

I truely thought the General would have most of it sorted by now.

[stoli]

It is so important that the Thai fishing industry address this problem. They received a red flag from the US, and escaped a ban, but if the UK address' the issue head on with a ban, the US would have to follow suit. I remember from shopping in the states, for many years, all of the shrimp come from Thailand. I believe the problem is not illegal workers, but workers that signed on to work on a anchored ship for a few months at sea, and being kept there for years.

On the plus side, it will greatly weaken the baht against the dollar. The important thing is to have workers free to come & go. If this causes a lack of workers, and the price must go up, so be it. I am not rich by any means, but I do not want to buy cheaper shrimp in the US if it is because of slave workers. If Thailand does not act quickly, and the US & UK media starts to hammer at this, the Thai market will collapse.

[Gandtee]

Thailand must understand that now that they are playing with the big boys they cannot ignore issues and international law. The big boys do not have a Mai ben rai culture and will not allow Thailand to use it.

[Yann55]

The West is right, of course, to condemn human trafficking and to envisage a ban if nothing is done to stop it.

The thing is ... this kind of abuse comes at the end of a capitalistic chain of causes and effects, whereby His-Majesty-The-Market causes the producing end of the line to look for ever-and-ever cheaper ways to reduce production costs. May I remind all the self-righteous Americans who are now pontificating on the subject and telling the Thais how shocked they are of such practises, that before the Civil War the main argument of the Southern States for maintaining slavery was based on economic factors... Cotton and tobacco (mainly) were sold at such and such prices because the labor was the cheapest possible, ie slaves.

Slavery is wrong, wrong, wrong, there is no discussing that. What is worth discussing is how it comes about, and how many people down the line are indirectly responsible for it, in fact. And that includes you and me, the general public who goes to the local supermarket and is delighted to find these Thai shrimps at such amazingly low prices...

Isn't it time to acknowledge that "fair trade", that beautiful idea, should not just be about the West slapping hands of traders in developping countries and telling them tsk tsk, you should not be making so much money on the back of producers, while that is precisely what Western distributors are doing ? How about educating the general public, the so-called consumers, and explaining to them that there is a line which should not be crossed in selling prices, unless you don't mind wearing shoes that were made by slave kids and so on...

[tracker1]

Finally someone thinking in reality ! this man should be PM, he is seeing in real terms what can happen if they don't get their act together ! maybe he can fix the lottery debacle too !!!!!!

[RigPig]

What he REALLY means if he and his High-so friends in Bangkok can't then make the money they have been by continuing to exploit the poor Thai and Burmese/Cambodian/and Lao fishermen as they have been up to now..... then he won't be able to get a new Mercedes for his next Mia Noi teenage girlfriend.

And that would cramp his luxurious lifestyle.

DAMN!!! So that´s what I´ve been doing wrong? The scooter wasn´t enough I should have go ta Merc.....

[angiolo]

I was amazed at the vast number of fishing boats work from Thailand. In European waters the problem is over fishing. Will this happen here ?

[nakhonandy]

I was amazed at the vast number of fishing boats work from Thailand. In European waters the problem is over fishing. Will this happen here ?

It already has.

As a diver I have seen the difference in fish populations over the last 15 years.

[CALSinCM]

A banker, a Thai Visa reader, and a Royingha refugee are sitting around a table sharing 12 bottles of beer. The banker takes 11 bottles and pours half the 12th bottle into his glass, then looks at the Thai Visa reader, nods in the direction of the refugee, and says: "Watch out for that refugee, he wants the rest of your beer!"

Edited April 28, 2015 by CALSinCM