Get past the Thai-China trade deficitPeople buy durian imported from Thailand at the 'Qingdao Thai Fruits Golden Months 2021' event in Qingdao, China. First, the Thai-China trade deficit has been going on for over a decade, not just in 2019. In 2010, the Thai-China trade gap was equal to 0.9% of GDP but this gap widened to 4% of GDP in 2019. Household debt rose from 57.9% of GDP (5.6 trillion baht) in 2009 to 80.2% of GDP in 2019 (13.5 trillion baht) -- an increase of 7.9 trillion baht. I would like to suggest the country looks intensely at the Thai-China trade gap problem and adopts an "import substitution" strategy to expand domestic production.

Source: Bangkok Post September 15, 2021 23:26 UTC