Trade recovers, exports continue to expand, Commerce Ministry pushes border-transit trade plan

Border trade and cross-border trade figures

Mr. Ronnarong Poolpipat, Director-General of the Department of Foreign Trade, revealed the figures for border trade and cross-border trade in October 2023, with a value of border and cross-border trade of 139,695 million baht, divided into exports worth 70,042 million baht and imports worth 69,653 million baht.

Thailand had a trade surplus of 389 million baht in October 2023. Border trade with 4 countries (Malaysia, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Myanmar) in October 2023 had a total trade value of 74,778 million baht, divided into exports worth 46,223 million baht and imports worth 28,555 million baht. Thailand had a total border trade surplus of 17,667 million baht.

The main border export products are diesel oil worth 3,284 million baht, other refined oils worth 1,417 million baht, and computers and other equipment worth 1,301 million baht. Cross-border trade to third countries (China, Singapore, Vietnam, and other countries) in October 2023 had a total value of 64,917 million baht, an increase of 6.6%.

Compared to the same month of the previous year, it was divided into exports worth 23,820 million baht and imports worth 41,098 million baht, with important cross-border export products including hard disk drives worth 3,208 million baht, TSNR rubber worth 2,876 million baht, and fresh durian worth 2,208 million baht.

The Director-General of the Department of Foreign Trade said that border trade in October 2023 contracted due to the fragile economic conditions of neighboring countries, such as Laos, where inflation is high and the Kip continues to depreciate, and the conflict situation in Myanmar, which affected Thai exports to both countries, of which more than 80% is border trade.

Border exports to Laos and Myanmar contracted by 14.5% and 9.9%, respectively, while cross-border exports to China expanded by 9.0%, the fifth consecutive month of expansion. The products with the highest expansion were fresh durian at 2,206 million baht (+162.8%), processed wood at 1,990 million baht (+131.7%), and TSNR rubber at 1,476 million baht (+48.7%).

The Ministry of Commerce therefore places importance on promoting border trade to expand further as a main mechanism to drive the strategy to promote border and cross-border trade and investment in 2024-2027, which has the main objective of increasing the value of border and cross-border trade to 2 trillion baht per year in 2027.
By laying down 4 strategies to promote border and cross-border trade, including:

1. Develop Thailand’s competitiveness to increase trade value
2. Enhancing the potential and facilitation of border checkpoints
3. Promote and utilize various framework agreements and cooperation frameworks.
4. Promote investment in border areas and neighboring countries, which will have subcommittees to drive each sub-strategy.

The initial action plan to achieve the goal includes upgrading 3 relaxation points to permanent border crossing points: Special relaxation point at Singkhon checkpoint, Prachuap Khiri Khan province, Ban Huai Ton Nun trade relaxation point, Mae Hong Son province, which will accelerate negotiations with Myanmar to certify the results of the Joint Detail Survey (JDS) of Singkhon checkpoint and accelerate the preparation of JDS of Ban Huai Ton Nun checkpoint and Ban Sap Tari trade relaxation point, Chanthaburi province.

The latest is that a committee has been appointed to drive the upgrade to proceed with the next steps, resolve various limitations to move forward, including resolving the problem of delays in importing and exporting goods, especially at the Mae Sot Border Checkpoint 2 in Tak Province, which is currently constructing an external X-ray point, and the Tak Highway District 2 (Mae Sot) has designated a stop for document inspection, and the checkpoint has now begun operations from 6 a.m. onwards.

To alleviate the congestion, accelerate the issuance of Certificates of Origin (C/O) of neighboring countries. A digital system has been introduced to help, but there are still some countries that are still stuck. Five countries have already been resolved: Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar. The remaining countries are the Philippines.

which is currently being addressed. At the same time, we are expediting the establishment of One Stop Service (OSS) centers in 10 provinces with high border trade value. Four provinces are ready to be set up immediately: Chiang Rai, Tak, Trat, and Songkhla. Four provinces are ready to be set up within three months: Nong Khai, Udon Thani, Nakhon Phanom, and Mukdahan.

Chanthaburi Province is in the process of requesting the use of land from the Royal Forest Department, while Sa Kaeo Province is in the process of constructing a customs building at Ban Nong Ian – Stung Bot. It is expected that the OSS center will be established in the two provinces in 2025. As for the opening of additional border crossings, currently 86 out of 95 border crossings on the Thai side have opened, while 73 have opened in neighboring countries.

In this regard, Mr. Phumtham Vejjayachai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce, emphasized the work that the private sector should be the vanguard driving the overall economy, knowing and understanding the overall problems, while the government will be the supporter who will help amend various regulations that will be obstacles to business operations.

Therefore, the establishment of a border trade strategy to promote border and cross-border trade and investment is an important mechanism to push border and cross-border trade to recover and become as lively as before, which will increase Thailand’s export figures in another way.

Source of information: Bangkok Business , Matichon

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