Trade

The U.S. government agreed this week to give another coast guard vessel to Vietnam so the Southeast Asian country can increase its defense against China. But behind that move, Vietnam and the United States are struggling over a growing trade deficit that has alarmed U.S. ...

Rubber growers and exporters have expressed concern that prices will continue to fall as Thailand seeks to boost its natural rubber exports, industry insider Men Sopheak said. In March, the International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC), which comprises Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, agreed to reduce rubber exports ...

In a scathing report, the European Union warned Cambodia that it has not taken enough steps to prevent a loss of its special trade privileges, noting particularly “further deterioration” of its human rights record since a review process was launched nine months ago. The confidential 70-page ...

Leaders from 16 Asia-Pacific nations including Japan, China and India have effectively given up on achieving the goal of finalising their free trade deal by the end of this year, according to a joint statement issued on Monday. In the statement released after their summit, the ...

Ministers from 16 Asia-Pacific nations failed to reach an agreement on creating the world’s largest free trade area at their meeting on Friday, a Thai negotiator suggested, but some are optimistic about the chances of a deal by year-end. A senior Japanese government official told reporters ...

Thailand plans to seek talks with the United States on a decision to end preferential trade privileges on a range of Thai exports including seafood, officials said Monday. Keerati Rushchano, acting director-general of the Commerce Ministry’s Foreign Trade Department, said his office has been warning exporters ...

Vietnam’s leading dairy producer TH Group, the first Vietnamese enterprise granted transaction codes to export milk products to China, looked forward to tapping opportunities for Vietnam’s dairy products brought by the upgrading protocol of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA). At a ceremony marking Vietnam’s export of ...

Thailand’s Department of Foreign Trade will announce on Monday the details of its suspension of duty-free treatment for some Thai products under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). This follows US suspension on Friday of such preferred treatment for Thai products worth around US$1.3 billion, citing ...

The Council of Ministers approved draft amendments to 10 articles of the Law on Trade Unions without modification on Friday, leaving some unions disappointed and claiming that the majority of their suggestions had not been included. Articles 3, 17, 20, 21, 27, 28, 29, 54, 55 ...

As multilateral trade negotiations have become unworkable, regional and bilateral alternatives are on the rise. In Thailand’s neighbourhood, the most consequential of these trade vehicles is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). As it missed the boat on the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), ...