THAILAND, the world’s largest rice exporter, plans to ratify a regional agreement to lower tariffs on most goods after resolving a dispute with the Philippines over rice duties.
Thailand will be allowed to sell as much as 367,000 tons of duty-free rice a year through 2014 to the Philippines, which will maintain a 40-percent import tariff until 2015, Alongkorn Ponlaboot, Thai deputy commerce minister, said at a meeting of economic ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
“We informed the meeting that we’ve concluded our negotiations on rice,” the minister said in an interview in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Ratification of the Asean Trade in Goods Agreement (Atiga) “should be in time for the next Asean Summit in April,” he said.
Asean is attempting to create an economic zone modeled after the European Union, without a common currency, by 2015.The group has said it needs to integrate more closely to gain more investment from China and India, the world’s two fastest-growing major economies.
Thailand is aiming to export 9 million to 9.5 million tons of the rice this year, an increase of as much as 11 percent, according to the Department of Foreign Trade.
The Asean free-trade area, which came into force January 1, removes tariffs on more than 87 percent of imports. The bloc’s richest six members implemented the tariff eliminations, while the rest, which are less developed, will follow later.
Asean includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment