00:00Tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump may pile pain on Thailand's ailing rice sector valued at billions of dollars.
00:10Things were already bad this year after rice prices crashed when India resumed exports in September.
00:17Now Thailand, the world's second largest exporter of rice, faces a 36% tariff on goods.
00:24Those kick in unless talks with Washington are successful before Trump's tariff moratorium ends in July.
00:31Rice farmer Deng Dong-sing, who sells her harvest at a rice mill in central Thailand, worries about her income which provides for a family of nine.
00:41The problem is that the price of rice is very low, while other costs such as fertilizer and farmland rent are higher.
00:51There is an imbalance, and I'm losing money.
00:54The U.S. is Thailand's third largest market by volume, but most lucrative.
01:00It usually imports the most expensive fragrant jasmine variety, which the Thai Rice Exporters Association says brought in $735 million last year.
01:11The group's honorary president, Chu Kiat Opadwang, says Thailand will struggle to compete in the U.S. market if the new tariffs go ahead.
01:20If the U.S. imposes high tariffs on us, our jasmine rice will be too expensive to compete.
01:29If they impose 30% tariffs at $1,000 per metric ton, the price would rise to about $1,300.
01:37This is a very high price, and since we don't know how Vietnam plans to negotiate, and the price of Vietnamese jasmine rice is at $580 per metric ton, no matter how much they manage to bring the tariffs down, or even if they get like a 40% negotiated tariff, there is still a considerable gap between our price and their price, given our higher base price.
02:00The association noted a 30% decline in Thailand's overall rice exports for the first quarter.
02:11That's as countries delayed buying decisions and supply grew with India's return to the market.
02:17The association expects a similar decline in exports over the next three months.
02:23The concessions Thailand is proposing to counter-Trump include bringing tariffs of U.S. corn down from 73% to zero.
02:32But industry groups say that would also hurt Thai farmers.
02:38President of the rice millers association, Banjong Tanjit Watanakun, says a flood of cheap corn imports could further depress prices of broken rice and rice bran, which are used in animal feed.
02:51The industry and farmers are pinning their hopes on negotiations between a Thai delegation led by the country's finance minister and the U.S.
02:59For farmers like Deng, their livelihoods hang in the balance and may be jeopardized by decisions made halfway across the world.
03:09My children read the news and they tell me, we won't be able to survive, Mum, if things go on like this, with what the foreign countries are doing.
03:19We'll be done.
03:20Thank you very well.
03:21Thank you very much.
03:22Thank you very much.
03:23Thank you very much.
03:24Thank you very much.
03:27Well, I appreciate your support.
03:29How have you done?
03:31We'll see you.
03:32Have a great day.
03:33I may not believe you're well.
03:35You can't believe you.
03:38Have a great day.
03:39We'll be on your team.
03:40We'll be doing a day for a few seconds.
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