Thailand, VN agree on pooling rice
Thailand and Vietnam have reached a preliminary agreement on pooling their rice trade to the tune of 2 million tonnes a year, in order to prevent price cutting, Thai Commerce Minister Krirk-krai Jirapet told a press conference yesterday after meeting with Vietnamese Trade Minister Troung Dinh Tuyen on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) ministerial meeting.
Krirk-krai said both countries had agreed to set aside 1 million tonnes of rice each for rice-pool trade. Thailand and Vietnam have been discussing for some time a rice-pooling initiative to prevent price-cutting, as the countries are the world's top two biggest rice exporters.Krirk-krai said he had also proposed that Vietnam set aside another million tonnes of rice for stockpiling, but Hanoi said it did not have enough facilities to store such a large quantity. In response, Krirk-krai suggested Thai companies were ready to invest jointly in storage facilities in Vietnam. Apec ministers concluded their meeting yesterday ahead of the leaders' summit tomorrow. Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Le Cong Phung said this was the year of "Apec reform", with the ministers drawing up a 26-page agreement on measures to be submitted to the leaders. The measures include a Hanoi Plan of Action, to make Apec more dynamic and effective. Phung said the Apec ministers also discussed disaster preparedness, averting a bird-flu pandemic and fighting corruption. Trade Minister Tuyen told the press conference the Apec ministers had also endorsed model measures that members could voluntarily adopt for future free-trade agreements, which comprise components like services, investment, government procurement and dispute settlement. The ministers also decided to send a strong signal for the resumption of the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round of talks on multilateral trade agreements. Tuyen described the mixed reception from Apec members to the US proposal for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) as "very natural". "It's a good thing, because something easily accepted might not be good," he said, noting that nonetheless all the ministers had agreed on the establishment of an FTAAP as a long-term goal. "How far in the future? Not only I, but other ministers cannot answer that either," he said. Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram said Thailand should benefit from the Apec meeting, because apart from the agreement to try to revive the Doha Round, the forum had a number of areas of interest to the Kingdom. These include the Economic and Technical Cooperation (Ecotech) programme aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of Thai investors. Jeerawat Na Thalang The Nation Hanoi
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