Thailand's online retail exporters targeting the US market are set to benefit from a windfall sparked by a new US law on tax collected on inbound international shipments, says online marketplace giant eBay.
Under the law, the US has increased the de minimus threshold on inbound international shipments from US$200 to $800 per shipment. In practice this means that goods shipped by Thai exporters to US buyers will only be assessed for duties if their value exceeds $800.
The law took effect on March 10.
"This law can create opportunities for significant sales volumes for Thai online retailers," said Boonphan Boonprayoon, head of cross-border trading at eBay Marketing (Thailand).
"Thailand was eBay's largest online retailer in Southeast Asia for seven consecutive years"
The country has the highest number of retail exporters whose annual sales exceeding US$1 million.
Auto parts makers and sellers of jewellery, especially diamonds, are expected to gain from the new law.
The best-selling products from Thailand are handicrafts and home and garden items.
EBay Thailand is focusing on providing training to Thai sellers to increase sales in the online marketplace.
The company is also expanding its collaboration with the Department of International Trade Promotion under the umbrella of the Commerce Ministry to provide training to potential small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
Greater collaboration with the Thai Auto Parts Aftermarket Association is well underway to promote local auto parts makers in hopes they will tap new market opportunities overseas.
"Encouraging SMEs, which are the engine of economic growth, to go online will comply with the Thai government's digital economy policy," said Mr Boonphan. There are 2.8 million SMEs in Thailand.
Globally, eBay.com had gross merchandising sales of $82 billion in 2015, with millions of active sellers and 162 million active buyers.
In the fourth quarter of 2015, eBay had $9.3 billion in mobile commerce sales with 304 million downloads of apps globally. Its revenue was $2.3 billion, 57% of which came from non-US markets.
As of December 2015, eBay's marketplace had over 800 million items listed for sale.