Shippers’ Council wants govt help to secure payments from foreign importers
The Thai National Shippers' Council will ask the Commerce Ministry to help secure payment from overseas companies that have delayed or declined to pay for imports received from its members.
Council vice chairman Visit Limluecha said he wants Thai Trade Offices overseas or the Office of International Trade Promotion to collaborate with counterparts abroad on talks for the importers to meet their payment obligations, though he realised that this was a difficult task.
He added that the payment delays or defaults stem from importers' lack of financial liquidity amid the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The council has advised its members to be more cautious in their export activities, including always requiring a 50-per-cent deposit payment from buyers and applying for export credit insurance with the Export-Import Bank of Thailand to cover possible losses.
