The Thai Chamber of Commerce on Thursday urged action from the government over US trade policy uncertainty, and proposed creating a “war room” to head off any threat of tariffs by the Trump administration.
The chamber said members’ “panic” over US trade policy was justified and Thailand must urgently review its import taxes on US goods and increase imports to reduce its trade surplus with Washington amid rising global trade disputes.
“Today, if asked if we are panicking about the US, we must be panicking because they are our number one export market,” chamber vice-chairman Poj Aramwattananont told a press conference.
“Time is very short. If we don’t hurry up and don’t respond officially to what is happening, we will run into problems. We have to be prepared and respond in a way that is fair to all parties.”
US President Donald Trump last month signed a broad trade memorandum ordering federal agencies to complete comprehensive reviews of a range of trade issues by April 1, including analyses of persistent US trade deficits.
Trump has proposed imposing reciprocal tariffs on countries that have large surpluses with the US, starting on April 2. Thailand could face trouble as it charges an average 8.2% tariff on US goods compared with 2.4% charged on Thai goods by the US.
The United States was Thailand’s largest export market last year, accounting for 18.3% of total shipments, or $54.96 billion.
Thailand had a trade surplus last year of $35.4 billion with the United States, according to the commerce ministry, which has cited challenges to growing Thai exports due to uncertain US trade policies.
The chamber said it has asked the government to establish a special working group alongside the war room to address US trade policy issues.
It said Thailand could import more energy and agricultural products as well as aircraft from the United States to narrow the gap.
