Bangkok, The private sector is concerned about cheap and inferior quality products invading the Thai market, urging the government to be strict in detecting them.
Mr. Montree Mahaprukphong, Vice President of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), revealed the results of the 38th FTI CEO Poll in February 2024 under the topic ‘Cheap, inferior quality products invade the Thai market. How is the industrial sector dealing with it?’ From the opinions of FTI executives, it was found that 65.8% of all survey respondents said that it had an impact on Thai product sales decreasing from 10% to more than 30% in some industries. This issue has caused the industry sector to be concerned about the competitiveness of the domestic industry. This is because many industries cannot compete on cost with cheap products coming into the country. There is also concern about the safety of consumers in choosing low-quality and non-standard products. Especially in the groups of electrical appliances, food, cosmetics, textiles, cloth
ing, fashion products, construction materials, etc.
As a result of this impact, FTI executives proposed that the government sector increase strictness in detecting products that do not meet standards and use false declarations to be imported through customs checkpoints. Along with inspecting products that are not up to standard in the market, both TIS and FDA, including having to expedite the problem of cheap products coming in through the online E Commerce platform by reconsidering exemptions from VAT collection ( VAT) for online purchases not exceeding 1,500 baht and issuing measures to prevent false price declarations. As well as reviewing the conditions for using warehouses in the Free Zone Warehouse to create equality in selling products in the country.
In addition, when asked about the competitive situation of Thai products in the ASEAN market, most FTI executives viewed that Production costs in Thailand have increased greatly from electricity costs. Cost of raw materials, labor, loan interest rates a
nd logistics costs This makes current Thai products starting to become more difficult to compete in the ASEAN market. This can be seen from the value of merchandise exports to ASEAN in 2023 that decreased by more than 7.12% compared to 2022.
Source: Thai News Agency