Thai exports could beat 2025 target but US tariff challenge looms, commerce minister says
BANGKOK, April 25 (Reuters) - Thai export growth could exceed targets this year but challenges loom as the government seeks to negotiate a tariff deal with the United States that would benefit both sides, its commerce minister said on Friday.
"This year's exports will still meet targets, or be slightly better," Commerce Minister Pichai Naripthaphan told a business seminar. "It may be bumpy, but it is not bad." The government has forecast exports to grow by 2%-3% this year.
Pichai spoke after export growth hit a 3-year high in March at 17.8%. Exports grew 15.2% annually in the first quarter.
But the Thai economy, Southeast Asia's second-largest, stands to be among the hardest hit in the region by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff blitz. It faces a 36% U.S. import tax if a cut cannot be negotiated before Trump's pause in enforcing the "reciprocal tariff" policy expires in July.
The United States was Thailand's largest export market last year with shipments of $55 billion. Washington has put its bilateral trade deficit with Thailand at $45.6 billion.
Thai-U.S. trade negotiations that were scheduled for this week have been postponed because the Trump administration has asked Bangkok to review important issues including its tariff structure, according to Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
His government has said its negotiation strategy will focus on industries where the U.S. and Thailand share interests, such as energy and pet food and increasing U.S. imports including liquefied natural gas.
U.S. officials are satisfied with Thai steps taken to tackle "circumvention", Pichai said, alluding to concerns over China exporting via third countries to evade Trump's tariffs.
Shipments of rubber gloves, tyres and animal feed to the United States were expected to rise to replace Chinese items that have been hit by much steeper U.S. tariffs, Pichai said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
38 minutes ago
- Reuters
Rubio marks Russia Day, reaffirms calls for peace with Ukraine
June 12 (Reuters) - The United States supports Russians' aspirations for a brighter future, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on the occasion of Russia Day, reaffirming a desire for constructive engagement in efforts to bring about peace in the war with Ukraine. The Russia Day holiday marks the country's 1990 declaration of sovereignty, more than a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union. "The United States remains committed to supporting the Russian people as they continue to build on their aspirations for a brighter future," Rubio said in a statement on the State Department website. "We also take this opportunity to reaffirm the United States' desire for constructive engagement with the Russian Federation to bring about a durable peace between Russia and Ukraine," he added. "It is our hope that peace will foster more mutually beneficial relations between our countries." On Wednesday, Russian news agencies said Moscow's new ambassador to the United States, Alexander Darchiev, pledged to work to fully restore ties with Washington as he formally presented his credentials to President Donald Trump. Ties between Moscow and Washington have improved since Trump took office, as the two discuss a possible resolution to the Ukraine conflict.
NBC News
39 minutes ago
- NBC News
Israel considering military strike on Iran, sources say
Israel is considering taking military action against Iran — most likely without U.S. support — in the coming days, even as President Donald Trump is in advanced discussions with Tehran about a diplomatic deal to curtail its nuclear program, according to five people with knowledge of the situation. Israel has become more serious about a unilateral strike on Iran as the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran appear closer to a preliminary or framework agreement that includes provisions about uranium enrichment that Israel views as unacceptable. A unilateral strike or action by Israel against Iran would be a dramatic break with the Trump administration, which has argued against such a step. The renewed threat of an Israeli strike comes as the Trump administration is awaiting a response from Iran on a proposed framework of a nuclear deal, and as the president has publicly said Tehran has become more hardline in its negotiations. The notion of a new front in a simmering conflict has prompted the Trump administration to order all embassies within striking distance of Iranian missiles, aircraft and other assets (including missions in the Middle East, Northern Africa, and Eastern Europe) to send cables with assessments about danger and about measures to mitigate risks to Americans and U.S. infrastructure, according to two sources familiar. U.S. and other officials are on alert awaiting the possibility of Israel striking Iran, the officials said. The White House has not briefed senior lawmakers on the issue, according to that aide and a U.S. official. One major concern is Iran retaliating against U.S. personnel or assets in the region for any action. Israel, which relies on intelligence or other direct and logistical assistance from the U.S., may be in a position to take unilateral action against Tehran, the source familiar said. The sources familiar and officials were not aware of any planned U.S. involvement in the possible action. The U.S. could support with aerial re-fueling or intelligence sharing rather than kinetic support but the sources and officials were not aware of plans for that either at this point. U.S. officials have announced that the voluntary departure of non-essential employees from the region. And the Pentagon announced the voluntary departure of military families from locations all across the U.S. Central Command area of operations. CENTCOM Commander General Erik Kurilla was due to testify on the Hill on Thursday, but the hearing was postponed late Wednesday without explanation. A source familiar said Kurilla had to focus on this unfolding situation. Another possible factor: Iran is rebuilding its strategic air defenses, and manned strikes will soon be exponentially more dangerous for Israeli pilots. In October, Israel damaged nearly every one of Iran's strategic air defense systems (mainly S-300s) but much of the damage was to the radars or other parts that can be rebuilt. It's possible Israel's window for manned strikes, without being threatened by Iran's coordinated strategic air defenses, is closing. While Israel would most likely prefer U.S. military and intelligence support for strikes — especially against Iranian nuclear facilities — they showed in October that they can do a lot alone. Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the evacuation of non-essential staff at the U.S. embassy in Iraq will send a message to Tehran that Trump will not necessarily hold Israel back from launching a threatened attack on Iran. 'It's about trying to get Iran to respect the president's wishes,' Knights said. Iran has failed to meet a two-month deadline set by Trump to reach an agreement on the country's nuclear activities, and the president is frustrated, he said. Both Knights and a source with knowledge of the matter said it was unclear if Israel would undertake a limited military strike now or wait until nuclear negotiations played out further. Trump has expressed growing frustration over Iran's stance at recent indirect talks, portraying Tehran as inflexible and slow moving. 'They're just asking for things that you can't do. They don't want to give up what they have to give up,' Trump told reporters on Monday. 'They seek enrichment. We can't have enrichment.'
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
It would be catastrophic for America if Trump doesn't forgive Musk
It would have been hard to miss the news this month of the spat between President Trump and Elon Musk. It 'escalated quickly', as the kids say, with Elon accusing Trump of hiding his associations with Jeffrey Epstein and Trump floating the possibility of cutting off Musk's federal contracts. The dust-up ended with Musk returning, tail between his legs, to say that he was sorry. This is the second time that Musk has been reminded that the forces of Maga have more political heft than the Silicon Valley tech bros. The last time the Maga-hammer came down on Elon, it was to remind him that Trump supporters voted against increased immigration after the Tesla boss pushed for the issuance of more H1B visas to foreign workers in the technology sector. This new conflict has reignited the debates between Maga populism and Silicon Valley libertarianism. While the dispute around H1B visas may have been clear-cut – the Trump ticket does not support policies like this – the issues that led to the recent clash are far less so. Musk was raising concerns around government spending that are becoming more relevant by the day. At the centre of the dispute was the so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill', a large piece of tax and spending legislation making its way through Congress. Musk, who has spent the last few months hacking away at government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), called the bill a 'disgusting abomination'. Unlike the printing of more H1B visas, Musk and his Doge programme were certainly on the ballot when Americans voted for Trump as president. In a speech to the Economic Club of New York in September 2024, then-candidate Trump announced that he would create a government efficiency commission that would undertake a 'complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government' and propose 'drastic reforms.' Beyond this, however, the issue of government borrowing is now an acute one. Just last month chief executive of JP Morgan Chase Jamie Dimon warned that mounting debts might 'crack' the US Treasury market, which prompted US treasury secretary Scott Bessent to insist that the United States is 'never going to default'. In April, The New York Times ran a shocking headline: 'Sell-off in US Bonds and Dollar Raises Questions About 'Safe Haven' Status'. In times past, major American newspapers would be cautious about playing politics with the American financial markets. But the pressures are becoming too obvious to ignore. To get a sense of how severe this is becoming, consider the fact that the interest rate on a 10-year Treasury bond is currently 4.47 per cent. Meanwhile, the yield on a German 10-year bund is 2.53 per cent. One of the reasons that US dollar assets are so popular with investors is that they are typically confident that borrowing rates in the United States will remain low and the dollar will remain strong. This is no longer the case. Interest rates are so high in the United States that American firms are now starting to borrow in Europe. These arrangements, which have become known in financial markets as 'reverse Yankee deals', are up 34 per cent in 2025 versus 2024 to a total of €83 billion. Corporate giants, like Pfizer and Alphabet, are dumping dollar loans and borrowing in euro instead. No wonder senior bankers at the European Central Bank are seeing this as an opportunity to boost the role of the euro. What we are witnessing are some of the most dangerous developments for the dollar-based financial system since Nixon ended the convertibility of the US dollar to gold in 1971. There are multiple trends feeding into this fragility – from the weaponisation of the currency when Russian reserves were seized in 2022 to the chaos unleashed by the Trump tariffs – but it seems unlikely that any of these factors would lead to a sharp increase in interest rates unless there was already such a large debt pile. Musk and Trump need each other. Elon needs his friend in the White House to ensure that his business model, which relies heavily on federal contracts, does not collapse. And Donald needs Elon to keep his administration's eye on the ball when it comes to economic reform. It seems unlikely that Musk will be able to reverse the Big Beautiful Bill. But he should continue to be a voice in the administration because he is performing a key role: highlighting what a dangerous place the country is in financially – before it is too late.
