BANGKOK, 20 May 2015, The World Trade Organization (WTO) has revealed that a non-governmental organization based in the European Union (EU) has produced an advertisement discouraging Europeans from buying Thai fishery products.
Mr. Thawatchai Dechachete, an economist with the Permanent Mission of Thailand to the WTO, commented that the commercial that could damage consumption of Thai fisheries’ products in Europe.
He said the commercial could stoke greater anti-Thai fisheries sentiment, following a yellow card that the EU issued for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. It could generate public pressure to elevate the yellow card to a red card, which would mean a ban by the EU on imports of Thai fisheries’ products.
Such a development could exacerbate problems in the Thai export sector, which has continued to struggle since the political unrest last year. Mr. Thawatchai said the Thai Mission to the WTO as well as law firms have been constructing a report to present their case to EU officials asking for a revocation of the yellow card.
In the past, the EU has issued and later revoked yellow cards issued to other Asian nations such as the Philippines and South Korea.
