Thailand, UK promote bilateral trade cooperation

 Thai Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijiwarong left for the UK on April 10 to discuss how both sides can cooperate to promote bilateral trade.

Before his trip, which lasts until April 15, the Thai minister said that the UK has been successful in developing a creative economy and Thailand wants to find a way to collaborate with the country to improve and add value to Thai products.

Two-way trade in 2017 reached 7.01 billion USD, of which Thai exported totalled 4.07 billion USD worth of products and imported 2.94 billion USD from the UK.

In the first two months of the year, Thailand earned 676.13 million USD from shipments to the UK while spending 460.63 million USD on purchasing UK products.

Thailand’s main exports to the UK included cars, auto spare parts, processed chicken, motorcycles and accessories, and electrical spare parts. Meanwhile, the country bought machinery, alcoholic drinks and medicine.

Earlier this month, UK Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox came to Bangkok to enhance trade between the two nations. This is the first trade secretary of the UK visiting Thailand in recent 15 years.

During his stay, Liam Fox met with Thai businesses and state officials. He took the occasion to promote the penetration of UK digital technology into Thai market. Cooperation in finance and transport was discussed during Fox’s trip to the Southeast Asian country.

VNA

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