September 2, 2008

Thailand's poultry exporters are calling on the government to negotiate with the EU to increase import quotas for Thai cooked chicken.

Thailand currently exports only cooked products to the EU with an import quota of 160,033 tonnes of boiled chickens per year, according to Suthep Tirapipattanakul, director of the Thai Broiler Processing Exporters.

The EU had given Thailand a quota of 252,643 tonnes – 160,033 tonnes of processed chickens and 92,610 tonnes of salted poultry. However, Thailand was unable to exercise its quota to export salted poultry to the EU after the bird flu outbreak.

Since July 2007, salted chicken under the quota has been taxed at 15.4 percent, while cooked chicken within the quota is taxed at 8 percent.

Suthep said the association has asked the Commerce Ministry to include the issue in negotiations under the ASEAN-EU free trade area agreement framework, and if possible, they would like the EU to discard the import quota system for Thai cooked poultry.

Due to bird flu in 2004, the EU banned frozen chicken which led to the sharp increase of Thai cooked chicken shipments. Cooked-chicken exports to the EU grew from 77,749 tonnes in 2005 to 127,709 tonnes in 2006, and to 150,000 tonnes last year. Thailand is expected to ship 160,000 tonnes of cooked chicken to the EU this year.

Thailand's total cooked chicken exports in 2007 reached 333,523 tonnes, valued at THB 37.3 billion (US$1.08 billion).

A source from the Department of Trade Negotiations said Thailand's perspective for the ASEAN-EU FTA talks on poultry issues is to request the EU to scrap its import quota system.

The EU aims for pacts that abolish 90 percent of tariffs within seven years and is concerned about non-tariff barriers and regulatory issues.