24 Jan 2019
International Economy
On January 8, 2019, the European Union (EU) announced to lift the so-called “Yellow Card” or warning on Thailand for our substantial progress in tackling illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Although the removal helps improve the image of Thai seafood products, such exports the EU will hinge largely on their competitiveness, given that we are at a disadvantage in that market against such major rivals as Vietnam, India and Ecuador in many ways, including taxes, special trade privileges, their rising output, labor costs and the appreciating Baht. ... Read more
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16 Jan 2019
The UK parliament voted to reject the Brexit deal presented by Prime Minister Theresa May on January 14, 2019 with 432 rejecting votes and only 202 approving votes. The result marks the heaviest parliamentary defeat of a British prime minister in history. The vote results show that members of the UK parliament refuse to accept the no-deal Brexit. KResearch views that with an option of a new round of negotiations or the second Brexit referendum, the Brexit Kickoff is likely to be postponed from the initial schedule date of March 29, 2019.... Read more
14 Mar 2018
The US is pressing ahead with trade measures against trade partners globally. In addition to their new ‘safeguard tariffs’ on imported solar panels and large washing machines imposed early in 2018, and more recently on imported steel and aluminum, the US is now preparing to implement protectionist measures against Chinese products valued at around USD60 billion. This direction will likely add significant pressure to global trade, thus, KResearch views that all eyes should be closely kept on negotiations between the US and EU, both being among the largest economies in the world. Details on those negotiations are expected to be released before the relevant ‘safeguard tariffs’ on steel and aluminum become effective at the end of next week. If the EU and China are exempted from these new tariffs, prevailing anxiety will ease. But to the contrary, without such exemptions, China and the EU may opt to implement their own trade protectionist measures against the US, as well. This situation would likely escalate into further actions and reactions, incurring significant damage to trade that could spill over to other regions of the world.... Read more
15 Sep 2017
A major implication of the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, the ‘EU-Japan FTA’, is that it will further liberalize the Japanese agricultural market for EU farm produce. Japan is one of the world’s most protected farm produce markets. The agreement may lead to trade diversion of Thai agricultural food exports to Japan. Once the EU-Japan FTA lowers tariff barriers for EU products entering the Japanese market, that could affect the Thai agricultural and agro-processed exports sent there now, even though Thai products are relatively competitive in international markets.... Read more