BANGKOK, Jan 31 — Poor management at ports along the United States West Coast has led to rising expenses as well as delays in unloading goods and Thai exporters are advised to have their goods delivered to the East Coast or other ports in Canada, according to Nuntawan Sakuntanaga, director-general of Commerce Ministry’s International Trade Promotion Department.
Ms Nuntawan said her ministry had received a report from the Thai Trade Centre in Los Angeles saying that a problem of US – Thailand trade could occur due to ongoing dispute prevailing at ports along the US West Coast, causing “unnecessary rising expenses” to exporters.
Thai exporters should, therefore, have their goods unloaded at ports along the East Coast or at other ports in Canada and then transport them by trucks to the US, she said.
Although oil prices have declined and help lowered goods delivery costs in the US, preventing workers from entering ports to work would force deliverers to switch to using other ports which would push up costs which consumers will have to bear at the end, said Ms Nuntawan.
Meanwhile, Jirapaphan Malithong, executive director of Thai Trade Centre at Los Angeles, said that the expected switching of ports could cause a shortage of certain goods in the US.
For example, 866 million pairs of shoes imported by the US, of which 68 per cent of them would be unloaded at Los Angeles and Long Beach, said Ms Jirapaphan.
They are awaiting unloading and would probably not be delivered to stores in time for when schools reopen or for the upcoming spring and summer seasons. (MCOT online news)
