The Customs Department has been told to ban Chinese imports of elephant-patterned pants as the pattern's copyright has now been registered, the Commerce Ministry said on Monday.

Concern about this popular clothing item was raised on a Facebook page, "Lui Chine" or "shoot2china'', which has 1.4 million followers.

The post on Sunday stated that pants that were sold on Chinese online shopping platforms were at least ten times cheaper than here, starting at around 30 baht per piece at the wholesale rate.

The post added that some Thai vendors had imported items from China, with the price starting at 65 baht for shorts and 75 baht for pants.

"[Thai manufacturers] will lose out [to the Chinese] in every way. They need to fight back by highlighting the quality of the pants as the main selling point," said the post.

Meanwhile, many wholesalers and retailers demanded the government do something about pants made in China.

A vendor in Bo Bae market in Bangkok said the Chinese pants have been popular among visitors for more than a year now as they were a lot cheaper, so the government needed to impose an import tax to help Thai manufacturers.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Sunday that the issue surrounding Chinese-made elephant pants is a reminder for the government to resolve copyright issues.

"Small matters like the [Chinese-made] elephant pants reflect a lot on how we need to be quicker working on the nation's [copyright] protection efforts," said Mr Srettha.