According to Thai media reports, Arada Fuangthong, Director-General of the Department of Foreign Trade under Thailand's Ministry of Commerce, stated that the United States has imposed a 36% reciprocal tariff on Thailand.

The Department of Foreign Trade will continue to monitor and prevent tariff circumvention practices by other countries via Thailand, so as to strengthen the confidence of U.S. Customs in the origin of Thai products and ensure that all exported goods are genuinely made in Thailand.

"The Department of Foreign Trade has designated 49 categories of key monitored goods exported to the United States, such as solar panels, steel wheels for trucks, engineered stone slabs and steel pipes.

Corresponding exporters must apply for product origin verification before applying for a Certificate of Origin."

The move aims to screen exported goods and prevent other countries from using Thailand as a transit point to evade U.S. tariffs.

The Department of Foreign Trade also plans to expand the list of key monitored goods and closely track trade data of other high-risk products, which may be falsely labeled as Thai-made to circumvent anti-dumping duties or Section 301 and Section 232 measures of the U.S. trade law.

Going forward, Thailand will continue to assess and expand the scope of key monitored goods, and maintain cooperation with U.S. Customs to crack down on fraudulent origin claims of Thai products.

Last week, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra convened the Ministry of Commerce, the Customs Department, the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and the Thai Chamber of Commerce to follow up on anti-fraud measures and formulate new rules for issuing Certificates of Origin.

The Prime Minister designated the Department of Foreign Trade as the lead agency to negotiate a new verification mechanism with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), focusing on the supervision of 224 tariff lines under 65 categories of industrial products (e.g., solar panels, hard disk drives, tires and their components).

The long-term plan includes amending relevant laws to impose severe penalties on fraudulent enterprises. Strict enforcement is expected to curb origin fraud within 90 days, helping Thai micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) expand their export markets.

On April 25, a joint emergency meeting was held by the Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister of Finance, the Minister of Commerce, together with the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce. The meeting resolved to require the Ministry of Commerce to reform the origin certification process, and collaborate with the private sector to implement production-source verification, closing loopholes for fraud before export.

The first batch of the monitoring list covers 194 tariff lines under 49 categories of goods (including 21 high-risk items), with an additional 244 tariff lines under 65 categories of industrial products added. The relevant tariff lines are subject to consultation and unification with the U.S. side.

Note: Part of the content is sourced from the internet.