Thailand to offer Trump no duties on 90% of goods, adviser says

The new proposal could reduce the nation’s US$46 billion trade surplus with the US by 70% within three years and lead to balanced trade within five years

Thailand is set to offer scrapping tariffs on 90 per cent of US goods, up from a previous plan for over 60 per cent, in a bid to avert a punishing levy threatened by US President Donald Trump, according to a business group advising Thai negotiators.

Bangkok’s third proposal would potentially eliminate tariffs and non-tariff barriers on about 10,000 US products, Chanintr Chalisarapong, vice-chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, told Bloomberg News in an interview on Thursday (Jul 16).

He added that he expects the final tariff on Thailand will be set in a range of 18 to 20 per cent – down from Trump’s most recent threatened level of 36 per cent.

The new proposal, which will be presented to Washington in a conference call on Thursday, could reduce Thailand’s US$46 billion trade surplus with the US by 70 per cent within three years and lead to balanced trade within five years, according to Chanintr. The new figures are even more ambitious than Thailand’s Jul 6 offer to cut tariffs on over 60 per cent of products and eliminate the trade gap in seven or eight years.

“I expect our proposal to be solid and practical. The numbers should be satisfactory to the US,” said Chanintr, who’s consulted with negotiators led by Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira over the past week to finalise details.

“What we’ll be offering is potentially more than Indonesia and Vietnam,” he said. “Since we’re a manufacturing country, we have potential to use a lot more US goods and process them into products that we can export.”

Source: The Business Times