The Commerce Min-istry will send a team of trade negotiators to Brussels to try to minimise the impact of planned changes to EU tariffs on chicken, one of Thailand's most important exports.

The EU has foreshadowed the introduction of new quotas next month for cooked chicken, salted chicken and turkey. Exports falling within the quotas will be taxed at existing rates, but shipments beyond the quotas will be taxed at a rate of ¤102 (Bt4,900) per 100 kilograms.

"We'll ask the EU to set quotas on chicken exports from Thailand at or above 140,000 tonnes a year," said Chantra Purnariksha, director-general of the ministry's Export Promotion Department.

Last year, Thailand shipped 106,503 tonnes of processed chicken to the EU, worth about ¤266 million. It is the country's second-largest market for chicken exports, after Japan. Exports are expected to reach 130,000 tonnes this year.

About 500 farmers protested the changes outside the EU's mission in Bangkok on Monday and urged the government to take action to minimise the impact of the changes.

Chantra said the Thai negotiators were set to leave for Brussels next month. But she suggested during an interview on Channel 9 yesterday that exporters should meanwhile look for new markets, such as Russia and Canada, to offset an expected decline in export volume because of the new tariffs. Panya Chotitawan, president of Saha Farms Co Ltd, one of the country's top three chicken producers, said it was not easy for exporters to turn to new markets in the short term. For instance, Russia tends to buy chicken through government-to-government arrangements instead of dealing directly with consumers or suppliers.

In addition, Russia buys a different type of chicken from those the EU buys from Thailand.

"That's why they tend to buy products from countries with which they have special relationships or political influence," Panya said.

He said the Thai government should be driving a bargain with the EU to help minimise the impact of the new tariff, by citing the high annual volume of EU imports to Thailand.

Adding to chicken exporters' woes, The EU plus many countries outside of that grouping have banned raw chicken from Thailand, because of fears of the deadly H5N1 bird-flu virus, which was first detected here in early 2004. The EU recently extended its ban on Thai raw chicken to the end of next year, following new outbreaks last month.

Thailand has so far suffered 24 human cases of bird flu, including 16 fatalities.

Thai farmers fear the new EU tariffs will damage the country's chicken industry just as it is rebounding from international bans.

To get around the bans, the industry has shifted from exporting raw poultry to cooked products, which pose no bird-flu risk. But farmers say the tariffs will make it harder for them to recover the cost of changing their operations to prevent future bird-flu outbreaks.

Agence France Presse

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