Exports to US verified to have Thailand-origin

BANGKOK, May 27 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Commerce, is taking action to verify that exports shipped to the United States are genuinely produced in Thailand, or truely have their origin in Thailand. Adul Chotinisakorn, Director General of the ministry's Department of Foreign Trade, told journalists on May 26 his department has dispatched teams of officials to inspect manufacturing plants across Thailand to ensure that all their products to be shipped to the US market are truely Thailand-made goods. Adul cautioned penalty actions will be taken against owners of manufacturing plants whose prepared shipments of goods to the US economy are verified not to be genuinely produced in the Thai economy and the US customs authority will be alerted. According to the senior official, the move is aimed to create confidence internationally in Thai exports to the US market and to prevent any trade protectionist measure against Thai exports to be imposed by the US government, amid the escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing. The US Trump administration has hiked import tariffs on over 5,700 items of products shipped from China from 10 per cent to 25 per cent, with the affected Chinese goods worth over 200 billion US dollars totally. The senior official reported, meanwhile, that the total value of Thailand's annual exports to the US market has kept rising over the past few years, from about 24.49 billion US dollars in 2016 to about 26.53 billion US dollars in 2017 and about 26.59 billion US dollars in 2018 respectively. Besides, Thai exports to the US market in the first half of 2019 stood at about 8.78 billion US dollars, a 32 per cent year-on-year increase, with top five Thai products shipped to the Unites States including machines, electrical equipment, rubber, tractors and pearl jewelries. (TNA)