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Published on March 17, 2008

The outcome will be considered during a meeting between Susan Schwab, the head of the USTR, and Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan next month in Bangkok.

The United States will an-nounce the trade status of Thai-land by the end of next month.

Depending on whether or not Thailand is downgraded from Priority Watch List to Priority Foreign Country (PFC), Washington will decide to extend or cut tariff privileges on Thai goods under the Genera-lised System of Preferences.

Last year, the USTR downgraded Thailand from Watch List to Priority Watch List, reasoning it had not implemented strong protection measures against illegal goods.

The US is Thailand's largest trading partner. Exports to the US accounted for 12.5 per cent of total export value last year.

Thailand is at risk of being downgraded to PFC after the decision by the Public Health Ministry to continue compulsory licensing for four cancer drugs.

The USTR is scheduled to announce its official revision of the trade status of 63 trading partners by the end of April.

The Commerce, Public Health and Foreign ministers will this week finalise the compulsory licensing issue.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation