EU inspectors to visit Thailand April 4-11

BANGKOK, April 3 (TNA) - A team of European Union (EU) officials will pay a visit to Thailand during April 4-11, 2018 to inspect the country's progress in the solution to issues related to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Poj Aramwattananont, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trade of Thailand and a board member, told journalists of the scheduled visit of the EU team on April 2. Poj acknowledged that the Thai government has tried its best over the past two years to solve IUU-related issues as claimed by the EU-trade bloc, including a 100 per cent-completion of amendments of relevant laws. Poj said, however, whether the EU would withdraw its "yellow card" imposed on Thailand pending the solution to the alleged IUU-related issues depends solely on the deliberation of the European authorities. Regarding to impacts from the Thai government's new daily minimum wage hike, which took effect on April 1, Poj foresaw, meanwhile, that it should affect, among others, on the country's labor-intensive farm and processed farm produce industries, in which about 13 million Thai workers are employed, excluding another part of migrant workers. The vice chairman pointed out that the new daily minimum wage hike should raise overall costs of business operators inevitably, but whether the prices of farm products and other goods would be increased should depend on the market demand and supply. According to the Board of Trade vice chairman non-Thai farm industrial sectors normally pay their workers higher than daily minimum wages in their respective areas as they mostly rely on the skilled labor. (TNA)