Thailand’s Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat said the government was not surprised to be hit with tariffs, though the level was higher than anticipated.
“We have to negotiate with understanding, not aggressive talk, but we have to talk which products they feel are unfair and we have to see whether we can adjust,” he said in a video interview posted online.
Finance ministry officials will meet to discuss steps to mitigate the immediate impact, he said, as well as drawing up guidelines for future negotiations.
“The goal is to develop a trade balance proposal that is substantial enough to incentivise the US to engage in negotiations with Thailand, ensuring minimal disruption to farmers, consumers, and businesses,” Paetongtarn said in an X post on Thursday.
The Thai government is ready to discuss trade balance adjustments with Washington at the “earliest opportunity”, she said.
But analysts were sceptical.
“Thailand’s negotiations may be ineffective since every country is affected by the tariffs,” Jitipol Puksamatanan, Head of Global Investment Strategy at Finansia Syrus Securities, told AFP.
He suggested that Thailand should seek to expand exports to other countries, such as China.
Investment house CGS International said in a briefing note that it expected the tariffs to wipe between 0.9 and 1.2 per cent off Thai GDP in 2025.
Paetongtarn, whose father Thaksin Shinawatra was prime minister in the wake of the late 1990s Asian financial crisis, hosts her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Thursday.
The pair will hold talks ahead of a summit on Friday of the BIMSTEC group of mostly South Asian countries plus Thailand and Myanmar, whose junta chief is making a rare foreign trip to attend.
