Group chairman Pornchai Pinvises yesterday said if the EU decided to impose an anti-dumping levy on the Thai product, Thai exporters would lose half their customers to other export rivals, including France and the United States.

"The price gap between Thai canned sweet corn and others will damage Thai exporters," he said.

The EU is considering imposing a 13.2-per-cent anti-dumping duty on Thai canned sweet corn.

Pornchai said the EU collected import data on Thai products last year but that the random nature of the collection made it unfair. The EU collected information from only four Thai companies, although more than 20 have exported to that market.

The group will send a letter to the European Commission and the French Embassy in Bangkok to call for the reconsideration of the data-collection process.

He insisted Thai exporters had not dumped products in the market, but rather consumers chose to purchase Thai corn because of its higher quality over its export rivals.

In addition, the group will ask Commerce Minister Krirk-krai Jirapaet to help solve the problem and file a petition with the World Trade Organisation over this unfair trade practice.

The association reported Thailand's canned-corn exports were valued at US$4.07 billion (Bt145 billion) last year, with volume of 118,089 tonnes. Thailand is the world's fourth-largest supplier of sweet corn, after the US, France and Hungary. The EU is the biggest importer of Thai canned corn.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation