Thailand preparing to cash in on trade ties with UK after Brexit

The ministry is planning to hold a seminar to give knowledge about trade regulations with Britain after Brexit this March, so that Thai entrepreneurs are not affected by the changes.
Auramon Supthaweethum, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, said that the United Kingdom officially ceased to be a member of the European Union (EU) at 11 pm GMT on January 31, three and half years after Britain voted to leave the EU in a referendum.
From now until the end of 2020, it will be a transition period of 11 months for the UK to remain under British regulations but without voting rights. Both sides must hasten negotiations, establish trade and security agreements, in order to ensure smooth relations between the two sides when the UK completely leaves the EU on January 1, 2021.
Auramon said Britain’s exit from the EU will not have much of an impact on Thailand. There may be a slight fluctuation in the value of the pound. But trade between the UK and other countries, including Thailand, will continue as normal under old trade rules, as though the UK is still a part of the EU for at least until the end of the year. However, during this period the UK will hold discussions for a trade agreement between them. The Thai Trade Negotiations Department will follow up on these discussions to coordinate with relevant sectors and prepare for appropriate adjustments.
She said the department has closely followed the Brexit situation and was preparing measures to support any after-effects. In particular, there will be negotiations with both the EU and Britain on the amendment of the WTO tariff quota table for 31 products, including cassava, cassava flour, white rice, brown rice, broken rice, animal products, canned fish wings, etc for which Thailand has received quotas from the EU. It will have to allocate new quotas after Britain leaves the EU with the primary goal of preserving Thailand’s full quota. Both the EU and Britain have to allocate new quotas, which should not be less than what Thailand enjoyed while Britain was still an EU member as well as reflecting the actual trade volume between Thailand and the EU. Britain is Thailand’s 21st most important trading partner (second in the EU behind Germany), with trade in 2019 valued at $6.26 billion. Thailand enjoyed a trade surplus of $1.426 billion.
Closer relations with the UK after Brexit is, therefore, a matter of importance to Thailand. The department is currently studying the policies and measures that hinder trade and investment between Thailand and the UK. There are meetings scheduled to brainstorm opinions with the government and the private sector on February 7 and 13 respectively. When Thailand and the UK complete each other’s trade policy studies, both sides will go into the discussions to prepare a joint trade policy report. This will help pave the way for FTAs ​​to be created in the future.
In this regard, trade between Thailand and England in 2019 totalled US$6.260 billion, down by 11.04 per cent from the same period last year, with Thai exports to the UK worth $3.843 billion. Major exports include processed chicken, cars and equipment, electrical circuits, gems and jewellery, motorcycle machinery, etc. Thailand’s imports from Britain amounted to $2.417 billion. Major imports were machinery and components, electrical circuit boards, beverages, medical and pharmaceutical products, etc.