Thailand to ask EU for tariff cut for drugs war

Thailand to ask EU for tariff cut for drugs war

Dominic Whiting, Reuters, Bangkok

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will ask the European
Union (EU) to slash tariffs on imports from the Southeast Asian
country as a reward for battling the illicit drugs trade during
his visit to Brussels this week.

Thaksin, who is due to meet European Commission President
Romano Prodi on Thursday, will argue Thailand deserves the same
zero-percent tariff rate the EU gives five Latin American
countries and Pakistan to help them combat drugs.

Thailand says it is fighting drugs production in the notorious
"Golden Triangle" region where the borders of Thailand, Laos and
Myanmar meet, and clamping down on the flow of heroin and
methamphetamines from Myanmar.

"Our position is we feel we are in the same category as those
countries fighting drugs so we are requesting the same
treatment," Commerce Ministry Spokesman Rachane Potjanasuntor
told Reuters.

"The Latin American countries and Pakistan get zero tariff
rates and it's affecting our exports, in particular products like
tuna and shrimp," he said.

The EU has slashed tariffs on goods from Colombia, Bolivia,
Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru since 1990 to encourage their fight
against drugs production. Some 90 percent of imports from the
five countries are now exempt from EU customs duties.

European officials have argued that Thailand did not qualify
for the scheme because it was mostly a transit country for drugs
rather than a producer. Most Thai products are subject to EU
customs duty of between five and 25 percent.

But in January, the EU extended the tariff cuts to Pakistan, a
key ally in the U.S.-led war against the al Qaeda network and the
Taliban, because of its role in combating trafficking of heroin
from Afghanistan.

Thai officials say the EU is practicing double standards, and
point to several crop substitution projects in northern Thailand
as proof the country has slashed poppy cultivation for production
of opium and heroin.

Thailand is also clamping down on drugs trafficking operations
by Myanmar ethnic groups along the Thai-Myanmar border, they say.

"You see what's happening in the courts, police action every
day, the border at the moment...there's so much evidence. We're
doing the same or even more than other countries," said Rachane.

"I hope the EU will understand and will make a correction," he
said, adding that Thailand currently favored negotiations with
the EU rather than action through the World Trade Organization
(WTO).

In the last month, the Thai army has been involved in several
skirmishes with drug-running groups of the United Wa State Army,
believed to be the world's largest narcotics army. The Thai army
blames the group for the estimated 700 million methamphetamine
pills flooding into Thailand each year.

The frequent gun-fights have inflamed relations between the
Thai army and Myanmar's military government, which has signed a
ceasefire deal with the Wa.

Myanmar accuses Thailand of helping other ethnic minority
militias that are using the drugs trade to fund armed separatist
struggles.

Thai officials said Thaksin, a telecommunications tycoon
before becoming prime minister early last year, would also meet
Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Belgium's Crown Prince
Philippe, during his two-day visit to Belgium.