Thailand’s insistence that trade negotiations with the US can proceed separately from talks over a fractious border dispute with Cambodia has been met with deep scepticism given Washington’s increasing use of economic policy as a political instrument and US President Donald Trump’s personal stake in the ceasefire deal.
Bangkok announced on Saturday that tariff talks with the United States would “remain separate from border issues”, a pledge government spokesman Siripong Angkasakulkiat said followed an assurance from Trump himself that Washington “does not wish to interfere”.
But this diplomatic calm was undercut by a letter from the Office of the US Trade Representative the Thai Foreign Ministry said it received just hours earlier, reportedly suspending negotiations until Thailand reaffirmed its commitment to the truce signed in Trump’s presence last month.
A bloody border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia erupted in July and tensions flared again last week after Bangkok accused Phnom Penh of injuring its soldiers by laying new landmines. Thailand subsequently suspended the peace deal the US president had personally helped to broker and demanded an apology.
Trump held separate calls with leaders of both countries on Friday. Neither the White House nor the US Trade Representative’s office have made public mention of the letter reportedly sent to Thailand suspending trade talks.
A framework trade pact the US and Thailand announced last month, retaining a 19 per cent tariff on Thai imports to the US while identifying areas for possible reductions, has yet to be finalised.
‘Highly improbable’
Analysts say it is “highly improbable” that trade and the border issue can be kept separate. Doing so would directly contradict Trump’s foreign-policy logic, according to Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a political scientist at Kyoto University’s Centre for Southeast Asian Studies.
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