Officials Push to Make Rice Deal with China

[webfact]

Officials Push to Make Rice Deal with China
BY JACOB MASLOW



BANGKOK: -- Thai officials are pushing to close a rice deal with China. Apiradi Tantraporn, Commerce Minister, will travel to China this week to sign the government-to-government, or G-to-G, deal.

Mrs. Apiradi will visit Beijing on Friday to speak to authorities about signing the deal for the sale of 1 million tons of rice. The rice deal is a part of the high-speed rail agreement between the two countries.

The Commerce Minister also hopes to persuade China to purchase other farm products, including tapioca and rubber, which are both in high demand.

Thai and Chinese officials signed a MoU (memorandum of understanding) back in December of 2014. Under the agreement, China will purchase 1 million tons of both old and new rice as well as 20,000 tons of rubber. The rice delivery was scheduled for 2016.

Full story: https://ethailand.com/business-news/officials-push-to-make-rice-deal-with-china/2527/

-- eThailand 2016-05-10

[Chao Lao Beach]

"The rice deal is a part of the high-speed rail agreement between the two countries."

Well the Thai Gov does have a history of swapping food for things, be it trying to buy F16 fighter jets with frozen chickens

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-wiki-diplomacy-business-idUSTRE72335820110304

For the embassy in Bangkok, winning achieved two goals: helping Lockheed and keeping the Russians from selling planes. There was, however, a small complication with the terms -- the Thai government didn't want to pay cash. Instead, it proposed trading 80,000 stockpiled tons of frozen chicken.

"Embassy contacts said that until Lockheed Martin offered a proposal to sell F-16s that included countertrade, the (Thai government) could not seriously consider its offer. Contacts also suggested that an offer that included an agreement to buy Thai chicken would be especially welcome," the embassy said in a March 2005 cable setting the scene for the competition.

A May 2005 cable indicates Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra personally raised the bird barter issue with Admiral William Fallon, then-head of the U.S. Pacific Command. Days later, word got to Thaksin that Lockheed was willing to play ball.

[Jimbo2014]

This is a case where both sides will have to count their fingers after shaking hands ?

[phoenixdoglover]

Yes, a barter deal would be lovely. What could the Chinese offer?

Defective solar panels

Air quality monitors

The entire Uighur population

[Srikcir]

Mrs. Apiradi better check to see if Beijing Great Northern Wilderness Rice Industry, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned Beidahuang Group, will be involved.

It was that company that got the Yingluck regime into trouble with a fake G2G rice deal.