EC FARM LIBERALISATION SEEN HURTING THAI TAPIOCA

  Any European Community decision to
  liberalise farm trade policy would hurt Thailand's tapioca
  industry, said Ammar Siamwalla, an agro-economist at the
  Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI).
      He told a weekend trade seminar here that any EC move to
  cut tariff protection for EC grains would make many crops more
  competitive than tapioca in the European market.
      The EC is the largest buyer of Thai tapioca, absorbing more
  than two thirds of the 5.8 mln tonnes of pellets exported by
  Thailand last year. Thailand has an EC quota of an average 5.25
  mln tonnes a year until 1990.
      Ammar said Thailand had benefited from an EC tariff
  loophole that subjects Thai tapioca to a preferential six pct
  import duty.
      Ammar, head of the agricultural research group of the TDRI,
  suggested tapioca farmers diversify to other crops.
      He said: "If cereal prices in Europe fall so that they are
  close to world prices, the tapioca market there will disappear
  completely."
      He said the issue may put Thailand in a dilemma because it
  had recently joined other major commodity producers in calling
  on the EC to cut its farm product export subsidies.
  

