Thailand: An economy on hold?

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From rice to rubber, manufacturing to tourism, Thailand is one of Southeast Asia’s most important export-driven economies. And its trading partners include China and the US. But the country's been struggling to bounce back from the effects of the Covid pandemic.

Ever since US President Donald Trump first introduced tariffs against China in 2018, Thailand's also found itself having to tread carefully between the demands of the two economic superpowers.

We hear from food producers, exporters and ordinary working people, about the choices ahead. Will Thailand now have to decide between Washington and Beijing if it is to survive a global trade war?

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: [email protected]

Presented and produced by Ed Butler

(Image: Bangkok's Chinatown. A neighbourhood packed with market stalls, gold shops, and restaurants. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there, I'm Ed Butler.
0:05.3	Welcome to Business Daily here on the BBC World Service,
0:08.7	where today I'm in Bangkok, in Thailand, enjoying the fruits quite literally of this Southeast Asian region.
0:18.3	You want to try?
0:19.3	Yes, please.
0:20.3	Okay.
0:21.2	This one is more sweet.
0:24.2	Oh, that is sweet.
0:26.9	Well, actually, I'm in Thailand, not just to eat all kinds of lovely mangostines and
0:32.7	Rambutans, but as part of a series of Business Daily programs looking at various aspects of this Southeast Asian region.
0:40.8	As countries here try to navigate a turbulent time for global trade,
0:46.2	is it time to reassess relationships with the US and nearby China?
0:52.3	I think that the rate of export might decline dramatically.
0:58.5	We're going to see that difficulty.
1:00.6	Not only Thailand, I mean, I think the whole Asia, we're going to face that situation.
1:06.8	Cannot avoid.
1:08.1	Yes, Southeast Asia is potentially facing some of the highest tariffs from Donald Trump's
1:12.7	White House of any region in the world. And given its dependence on export income, that could spell
1:19.4	seriously bad news here. There seems to be no solution for them other than very significant
1:26.4	monetary stimulus to boost demand growth.
1:30.2	The pressures that the companies are facing, it's a really bad place for them to be in.
1:36.6	Southeast Asia's brave new world. That's all to come in business daily.
	...

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