Ministry seeks solutions for auto-parts makers

The meeting will focus on how to help auto-parts exporters recover, the deputy director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, Surasak Riangkrul, said yesterday.
Parts makers do not qualify for export privileges under bilateral free-trade agreements (FTAs) with Thailand’s trade partners, including Australia and Japan, because they import raw materials from overseas and therefore do not comply with the agreements’ rules of origin, Surasak explained.
FTAs require that exported auto parts must have at least 40 per cent local content to qualify for tariff privileges.
The department will ask Thailand’s trade partners temporarily to relax the conditions of the rules of origin until the first quarter of next year. Similarly, the department plans to survey flood damage to other industries and seek export solutions for them by asking trade partners to relax some regulations to facilitate exports.
The department will also ask other trade partners to extend tariff privileges under the Generalised System of Preferences, and to reduce anti-dumping duties on Thai goods whose makers were affected by flooding.