Bhumjaithai export plan: cut US–China reliance

Bhumjaithai has outlined an export policy aimed at reducing reliance on traditional markets and strengthening SMEs to compete globally.

Commerce Minister Suphajee Suthumpun said Thai exports face risks from heavy dependence on the United States and China, which together account for around one-third of Thailand’s total export value. She stressed the need to accelerate expansion into new markets and reduce concentration across markets, exporters and product categories, while upgrading SMEs and promoting “Made in Thailand” to build a stronger and more sustainable long-term economic base.

On exports, she said the policy is crucial to the economy and remains a key economic engine that the next government must drive forward.

Suphajee, the commerce minister and a Bhumjaithai member, said the party wants to make exports and imports more efficient. However, she said Thailand’s problem is that trade is concentrated in just the US and China, with exports to those two countries equivalent to about one-third of the country’s total exports. If Thailand “parks” its exports in countries that are in conflict with one another, she said, it poses a risk—so Thailand must find new markets.

“Today, some people criticise me and say I look down on exports. I have never looked down on or insulted exports, but I think we can do more than this,” she said. “But if you can’t see where the problem is, and you think what we have is already good—would the country be like this? Thailand has had economic problems. In just three months, we have achieved this much, while those who have been doing the economy for who knows how many rounds and how many years say there is no problem with exports. Do they see the problem or not?”

Suphajee said she did not deny that other regions have seen growth, but her point was whether Thailand should continue growing while taking the same risks as before. What Thailand must do, she said, is find additional new markets and expand the overall base by selling more.

“So, to say Europe is growing, the Middle East is growing—does it grow enough?” she said. “What we must continue is how to enter new markets and make them grow more than before, so we can reduce reliance on the countries we currently depend on for one-third of our exports.”

She said the strategy for traditional markets is to maintain them and manage them strategically, through coordination between security, foreign affairs and trade. “And which party is more ready to do this than Bhumjaithai?” she asked.

Traditional markets must be maintained, she said, while new markets should be made to grow further. With exports concentrated in countries that are in conflict, she said Thailand faces high risk and must expand much more in other markets.

On claims that exports have problems, she said the first concentration issue is among exporters. Thailand has around 30,000 registered exporters, but only 7,000–8,000 are large exporters and they account for 74% of the share, while the rest are SMEs. The party therefore wants to support this group by building skills to strengthen SMEs, with programmes to improve access to funding, help them find markets, and protect SMEs from nominee businesses—work she said has already begun. She questioned why those who have managed the economy for many years had not fixed this issue, adding that SMEs must grow continuously and more strongly than before.

The next concentration issue is products. She said Thailand’s exports in 2025 totalled 11.1 trillion baht, while imports were 11.4 trillion baht, higher than exports. The concentration, she said, reflects that Thailand exports and imports goods from the same groups—such as machinery, computer equipment, and auto parts—meaning Thailand sits in the middle of the supply chain. The solution, she said, is to diversify export products so they are not concentrated in the same categories as imports.

As for accusations that she was devaluing exports, she said that was not the case. What should be promoted, she said, are goods made in Thailand—“Made in Thailand”. If that can be done, she said, it would be positive, alongside efforts to tackle falsely claimed origin, address goods used to circumvent rules, and expand exports of processed agricultural products. The duty of the economic team, she said, is to help farmers earn higher incomes.