BANGKOK (Reuters) – The Thai Chamber of Commerce on Thursday urged action from the government over U.S. trade policy uncertainty and proposed it creates a “war room” to head off any threat of tariffs by the Trump administration.
The chamber said its panic over U.S. trade policy was justified and Thailand must urgently review its import taxes on U.S. goods and increase imports to reduce its trade surplus with Washington amid rising global trade disputes.
“Today, if asked if we are panicking about the U.S., we must be panicking because they are our number one export market,” the chamber’s vice chair Poj Aramwattananont told a press conference.
“Time is very short. If we don’t hurry up and don’t respond officially to what is happening, we will run into problems. We have to be prepared and respond in a way that is fair to all parties.”
U.S. President Donald Trump last month signed a broad trade memorandum ordering federal agencies to complete comprehensive reviews of a range of trade issues by April 1, including analyses of persistent U.S. trade deficits.
The United States was Thailand’s largest export market last year, accounting for 18.3% of total shipments, or $54.96 billion.
Thailand had a trade surplus last year of $35.4 billion with the United States, according to the commerce ministry, which has cited challenges to growing Thai exports due to uncertain U.S. trade policies.
The chamber said it has asked the government to establish a special working group alongside the war room to address U.S. trade policy issues.
It said Thailand could import more energy and agricultural products as well as aircraft from the United States to narrow the gap.
(Reporting by Thanadech Staporncharnchai and Orathai Sriring; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by John Mair)
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