Krirk-krai said after seeing Bo on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting yesterday that the Chinese minister had asked Bangkok to pay half the cost of the planned bridge, which would link Chiang Khong district in the northern province of Chiang Rai to Route 3 in Laos.

The Chinese government has committed itself to sharing 50 per cent of the construction cost incurred in Laos and has asked the Thai government to share the other half. Krirk-krai said he would forward the proposal to the Cabinet to see if the project was economically viable.

On December 20, Thailand and Laos will open the second Thai-Lao Bridge, which eventually connects to Route 9 in Vietnam. Krirk-krai said the second bridge should also shorten transport routes to China.

Krirk-krai also asked his Chinese counterpart to solve remaining hurdles in fruit and vegetable trading.

In a meeting with Philippine Trade and Industry Minister Peter Favila, he was asked to look into the case of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) probe into tax-evasion allegations against Philippines-based Philip Morris, a manufacturer of tobacco products.

DSI was assigned by the previous government to investigate allegation that the firm had underreported the price of tobacco imported into Thailand and therefore underpaid import tax. Krirk-krai said he would look into the matter. but the case was now at the Finance Ministry.

Krirk-krai asked the Philippines to end protective measures against glass imports from Thailand.

He told Favila that such "safeguard measures" violated Article 19 of World Trade Organisation rules because Manila had imposed the measures without proving that Thai exports had damaged the market share of local products. In the Philippines, domestic glass products still account for 91 per cent of the market, he said. The measures have resulted in Thai glass exports to the Philippines dropping from 1,500 tonnes to 200 tonnes a year

Jeerawat Na Thalang

The Nation

Hanoi