Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak called an urgent meeting of his economic team at Government House today to assess the impact on Thai exports of the latest moves in the US-China trade war.
An informed Government House source said that Deputy Commerce Minister Ms. Chutima Boonyapraphat had been instructed to present the latest updates on the escalating trade war.
The source said that there is serious concern that the intensification of the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies will seriously disrupt the global economy and impact Thai exports and tourism industry.
China announced yesterday that it will impose tariffs on US$60 billion of US goods from June 1st. The move came three days after the US doubled tariffs on US$200billion of Chinese imports.
The escalation drove stock markets down, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing more than 600 points lower.
US President Donald Trump warned China not to raise levies, but Beijing said it would not just swallow any “bitter fruit” that harmed its interests. China has raised tariffs on more than 5,000 US products, with the new rates ranging from 5% to 25%. Items affected include beef, lamb and pork products, as well as various varieties of vegetables, fruit juice, cooking oil, tea and coffee.
The latest round of US-Chinese trade negotiations ended in Washington on Friday without a deal.
As well as ordering a tariff increase on $200billion worth of Chinese imports, Mr. Trump also directed the US trade department “to begin the process of raising tariffs on essentially all remaining imports from China”, estimated to be valued at around $325 billion.
