Thailand becomes world 2nd largest exporter of canned, processed seafood products

BANGKOK, May 23 (TNA) - The Thai Ministry of Commerce reports that the Kingdom has become the world's second largest exporter of canned and processed seafood products, thanks to free trade agreements (FTAs) the country has signed with many trading partners. Auramon Supthaweethum, Director General of the ministry's Department of Trade Negotiations, told journalists on Thursday that 13 FTAs Thailand has concluded with 18 trading partners have considerably boosted the country's shipments of fishery products over the past year. Auramon confirmed that Thailand has, thus, now become the world's second largest exporter of canned and processed seafood products, after China. Auramon acknowledged that most trading partners which have signed FTAs with Thailand, including other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru and Hong Kong, have eliminated their import tariffs on all items of fishery and processed seafood products shipped from the Thai economy. The senior official stated that since last year, Thailand's exports of fishery and processed seafood products to China have expanded the most by 484.19 per cent, followed by those in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 178.29 per cent, Australia and Chile by 127.33 per cent, South Korea by 105.48 per cent, New Zealand by 85.36 and Japan by 18.48 per cent. The senior official said, however, that some items of Thai fishery and processed seafood products have still faced import tariffs in three trading partners so far, including India, Japan and South Korea. According to the senior official, Thailand's exports of fishery and seafood products have generally kept growing, thanks to the rising global demand, with the country's shipments of the products to foreign economies in the first quarter of 2019 standing at about 1.33 billion US dollars totally, a 2.89 per cent year-on-year increase, about 590.4 billion US dollars of which were shipped to trading partners under the FTAs. The senior official revealed that her department will speed up its negotiations on the conclusion of Thailand's more FTAs with Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Turkey, as well as with other trading partners under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) framework, along with holding talks with other ASEAN member countries, Japan and the United States on the opening of their markets for more Thai exports of fishery and seafood products. (TNA)