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| Europe | |
| Euro's Demand; Planes for Prawns | |
| 2005-01-19 | |
TSUNAMI-struck Thailand has been told by the European Commission that it must buy six A380 Airbus aircraft if it wants to escape the tariffs against its fishing industry. While millions of Europeans are sending aid to Thailand to help its recovery, trade authorities in Brussels are demanding that Thai Airlines, its national carrier, pays £1.3 billion to buy its double-decker aircraft. The demand will come as a deep embarrassment to Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner, whose officials started the negotiation before the disaster struck Thailand - killing tens of thousands of people and damaging its economy. While aid workers from across Europe are helping to rebuild Thai livelihoods, trade officials in Brussels are concluding a jets-for-prawns deal, which they had hoped to announce next month. As the world's largest producer of prawns, Thailand has become so efficient that its wares are half the price of those caught by Norway, the main producer of prawns for the EU. To ensure the Thais cannot compete, EU officials five years ago removed its shrimp industry from the EU's generalised system of preferential tariffs - designed to share Western wealth with developing countries by trade.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #13 DB - Absolutely true. My friends told me that the philosophy was bend, but never break. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-19 5:05:30 PM |
| #12 Correct me if I'm wrong, RB'ers, but I believe that Thailand was the one Southeast Asian country never colonized, and always independent. I recall one Thai lady who was quite proud of that. She was half my size and sweet as could be, but I wasn't gonna cross her if she got pissed off..... |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-01-19 4:38:03 PM |
| #11 I am inclined to believe everything bad about the Euros but I would take this particular one with a grain of salt: journal tells about EU taxing Thai prawns in order to favour Norway but Norway isn't part of the EU. Think anti-euro journalist vecame over-zealous. |
| Posted by: JFM 2005-01-19 4:37:48 PM |
| #10 Lol, Dave - too true. The average Thai kids grow up in some, uh, tough neighborhoods, heh. Seems they are all prett good at muaythai by the time they hit their teens... and have seen (participated in) some hardcore shit, heh. I used to have a book for Westerners who want to do business in Thailand, I think it was titled "The ABC's of Doing Business in Thailand". A was for assassination. Think silvered aviator sunglasses, wearing a helmt, and packing a MAC-9 on the back of a motorcycle, heh. They're always sitting ducks in the traffic jams... |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-19 3:50:57 PM |
| #9 "The Thais are not to be screwed with lightly." From what I saw of them in the military back in '70-'73, they are not to be screwed with, AT ALL. Ever. They can be truly nasty. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2005-01-19 3:39:38 PM |
| #8 The Thais are not to be screwed with lightly. I recall a conversation from some 15 years ago when they were letting the contracts for a large petrochemical refinery down south on the peninsula. I was in the Hog's Breath Saloon in Nana Plaza (Bangkok) and the guy I was talking to (a VP for the primary contractor) laughed when I asked him how various firms were doing in the bidding on subcontracts. He pointed out that TotalFina, for example, had been invited to participate in the bidding for one reason: they had screwed over several Thai companies and even the Thai Oil Ministry a few years before. When I said I didn't understand, he laughed and said they would be "buying lunch". Further inquiry revealed that they would be expected to grease palms, throw lavish parties, fly some Officials and their spouses to Europe for some subsidized shopping, and a raft of other bribery schemes and, in the end, would be told in a style that is uniquely Thai: "Now the slate is clean. Please fuck off." It was Chili Movie Sunday, for those who recall such minutia. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-19 3:23:39 PM |
| #7 TSUNAMI-struck Thailand has been told by the European Commission that it must buy six A380 Airbus aircraft if it wants to escape the tariffs against its fishing industry. Now that is some real sennnnnnnnnnnnnsitivity for you. I would hope that the US strengthen its ties (no pun intended) with Thailand, and the rest of Asia to make a real market. This type of extortion REALLY sucks. Tying shrimp to Airbuses is a lousy way to do business. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-01-19 3:13:07 PM |
| #6 This reminds me: The Royal Thai Navy has an operational aircraft carrier, albeit a very small one, which is more than can be said for any of the Continental EU powers. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2005-01-19 3:02:05 PM |
| #5 Except I think our tariff is actually a tarrif. If the Europeans aren't doing what I suggested, then they're offering to screw over their shrimping industry in order to help Airbus a little. It's interesting, either way. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-01-19 2:41:27 PM |
| #4 Am I the only one who suspects that the buy-Airbus-or-else extorsion deal was the original plan all along? Hey, they gotta recoup the A380's $6.5B subsidy somehow... |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-01-19 2:41:12 PM |
| #3 Buy our planes! You can use 'em for... paperweights or doostops! To be fair, I saw a story that said the US is not suspending its shrimp tariff either... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-01-19 2:36:49 PM |
| #2 The EU -- organized crime without the machine guns. |
| Posted by: Tom 2005-01-19 2:34:53 PM |
| #1 Am I the only one who suspects that the buy-Airbus-or-else extorsion deal was the original plan all along? |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-01-19 2:31:42 PM |