The dispute over rice import tariffs between Thailand and the Philippines continues to simmer.

The dispute was a key point of bilateral trade talks between Thailand and its partners, including China, attending the Asean summit.

Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai, after talks with Philippine Secretary of Trade and Investment Peter Favilla, said more talks should be held to find a solution to Thai demands. The next round of talks will be held in Manila.

Thailand wants the Philippines to cut import tariffs on rice and increase rice import quotas to compensate for Manila's failure to honour the Asean Free Trade Agreement (Afta).

Under the Afta, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei have agreed to decrease the common effective preferential tariffs (CEPT) of all products at the beginning of next year.

Rice import tariffs for the Philippines should be cut by half, to 20%, by Jan 1 next year. But Manila will set rice import tariffs at 35%, citing that it is a "highly sensitive product".

Yesterday, the Philippines proposed to give Thailand a quota of 50,000 tonnes of tariff-free rice annually to compensate for not meeting the tariff target. But this fell short of Thai demands for a quota of up to 360,000 tonnes.

Mrs Porntiva admitted that it would take more than a month to solve the problem, with hopes that the Asean Trade in Goods Agreement (Atiga) could be signed before the deadline this year.

"We have a timeframe of more than one month to solve this problem and have time for the ratification of Atiga," she said.

Atiga is an amendment to the CEPT scheme, which focuses on tariff reductions or elimination, but Atiga comprises both tariff and non-tariff elements, as well as sanitary issues, measures pertaining to the health of plants, customs procedures and trade facilitation, among other items. The refinements are part of the effort to create the broader Asean Economic Community by 2015.

Mrs Porntiva said Thailand also raised the problems facing exporters of fruit to China, especially the issue of a Quarantine Import Permit, for which Thailand asked China to consider extending the period of validity from six months to one year, and expand the range of fruits that are covered by each permit from one type of fruit to 23.

Source: Bangkok Post