Pranee Siriphand, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said Thai producers should be able to export more to the EU market after exporters proved they did not engage in price dumping or re-exporting cheap products from China.

The European Commission recently ended its investigation into Thai stainless-steel fasteners, saying it could not prove that Thailand dumped goods on the market.

The EU announced it was conducting an investigation into Thai stainless-steel fasteners in June last year after growing suspicious that China was circumventing the rules by shipping products to Thailand and re-exporting them to the EU market. However, Thailand was able to prove that there was no such an action. Thai exporters have no intention to avoid tariffs in exporting to the EU, it was shown.

Stainless-steel fasteners from China and Taiwan are subject to high tariffs of between 11.4-27.4 per cent and 8.8-23.6 per cent of the CIF (cost, insurance and freight) price. The tariff charged on Thai products is between 10.8 and 14.6 per cent. Thus, the EU was worried that China could circumvent the higher rates by exporting to Thailand before re-exporting to the EU.

Although the EU has ended its investigation for Thailand, Pranee warned Thai exporters to be aware of anti-dumping duties in the future. She said that Thai exporters should quote prices based on reality that do not hurt traders in the targeted countries. Otherwise, the exporters could face high tariffs, she said.

Source: The Nation Thailand