The European Union will drop its petition against Thai exporters of canned sweet corn after determining they have not breached anti-dumping regulations.

A Commerce Ministry official said yesterday that the EU would cancel the petition sometime before making a new announcement on the anti-dumping duties of its trading partners on December 27.

The source said that after investigating Thai exporters, the EU found canned sweet corn from Thailand had not been dumped in their market.

The EU announced in April that it planned to file a petition against

Thai canned-corn exporters in response to their increasing market share, which has hurt European exporters these past five years.

The Commerce Ministry official said Thailand explained to the EU that its rapidly increasing exports of canned sweet corn were the result of more primary producers using spare land to grow corn, which they then independently exported.

While this development has led to a reduced price and more exports of canned sweet corn, it constitutes supply and demand, not dumping, said the official.

The Customs Department reported Thailand's canned-corn exports increased 23.76 per cent to US$77.6 million (Bt2.83 billion) in the first nine months of the year.

The EU is the biggest importer of Thai canned corn.

Last year, Thai canned-corn exports totalled Bt3.33 billion.

More than one-third, or Bt1.34 billion worth, were shipped to Europe.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation