Brexit viewed to have limited impacts on Thailand in short run

BANGKOK, March 27 (TNA) - The Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO), under the Ministry of Commerce, says that Britain's exit (Brexit) from the European Union (EU) is considered to have limited impacts on Thailand in the short term. TPSO Director-General Pimchanok Vonkorpon made the assessment on March 26, reasoning that Thailand's economic fundamentals remain strong, namely low levels of the country's inflation and unemployment but a high-surplus in the current account, all the factors of which should enable the Thai economy to deal with external risk factors caused by impacts from the Brexit at least in the short run. Pimchanok told journalists although the approaching Brexit has raised the uncertainty for the world trade, the negative impact on Thai exports to Britain and the EU has remained unclear as a drop in the country's shipments of goods to the British and the EU markets during the first two months of this year was found to have mainly caused by other factors. The TPSO chief pointed out that a relocation of production plants to Europe by some auto manufacturers and a normal declining cycle of Thailand's shipments of electronic products to foreign markets were observed to be the main factors pulling down the country's exports during the past couple of months. Besides, the British government has implemented measures to help ease negative impacts from the possible "Hard Brexit" or "No Deal Brexit", particularly those concerning British imports through EU ports, while also having worked together with the British private sector on tailoring an initial two-year national transitional plan towards the Brexit. According to the TPSO chief, her office will, however, keep monitoring updates of the Brexit closely, including those on the tariff quota for Thai exports of farm products to Britain based on the EU trade bloc's regulations. The TPSO chief proposed, meanwhile, that Thailand strengthen trade and investment ties with both Britain and the EU during the ongoing transitional period towards the effective Brexit, expected in the coming months, to mostly maintain and even increase the country's business opportunities in both of the two potential western markets. (TNA)