Thailand's prime minister on Thursday called on the United States to pursue long-term shared economic stability after the White House announced a retaliatory tariff, which set at 36 percent effective on imports from the Asian country from April 9 onwards.

“This tariff increase will inevitably impact all trading partners, particularly affecting American consumers’ purchasing power, who may not be able to absorb the rapid price increases,” said a statement released by the prime minister's office Thursday afternoon.

It noted that the Thai government is fully aware of these risks and has prepared mitigation measures to support affected Thai exporters who rely mainly on the US’s market. “In light of this, Thai exporters are encouraged to seek new potential markets to reduce reliance on a single market,” says Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra in the statement.

The PM said Thailand has expressed its readiness to engage in dialogue with the United States at the earliest opportunity to achieve a fair trade balance that minimizes disruption to both economies.

A dedicated US Trade Policy Taskforce, established on Jan 6, has been working closely with both public and private sectors for the past three months to monitor developments and prepare a set of substantive proposals.

“These proposals aim to incentive the US to enter negotiations with Thailand while minimizing impacts on Thai farmers, consumers, and relevant businesses. At the same time, this moment may also serve as an opportunity for Thailand to restructure production, reduce costs, and enhance long-term competitiveness in certain industries,” it said.

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Paetongtarn noted that Thailand remains firmly committed to building a stable and balanced trade relationship with the US.

“We are well-positioned to be a part of ‘Friend Shoring’, by strengthening bilateral cooperation in mutually beneficial industries for sustainable global growth. For instance, in agriculture and food processing, Thailand can import the US agricultural products for value-added processing for re-export to the global market. In the high-tech sector, Thailand’s role as a major global producer of hard disk drives is strategically important to the US’ data center and AI industries,” she said.

She said Thailand will actively promote cooperation to jointly strengthen both countries’ agriculture and future-focused industries, helping to mitigate the impacts on both economies through constructive and timely dialogue.

Experts estimated that Thailand’s GDP may grow lower than the prior estimate amid import tariff hikes and changes in US foreign policy over the past two months.

“Thailand were to face an additional 25 percent US tariff, its GDP growth is projected to be decreased by 0.6 percent. As a result, the current forecast for the Thailand’s economic growth at 2.4 percent may be at risk of falling,” said Nattaporn Triratanasirikul, Deputy Managing Director of Thailand Kasikorn Research Center on April 3.

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Vice-chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries Tawee Piyawatana also estimated that US reciprocal tariffs are expected to reduce Thai GDP growth by 0.2 to 0.6 percentage points from previous assessments.

The private sector is working with relevant government agencies to prepare for uncertainties. “We will continue to monitor the actual impact and adjust our growth forecast accordingly, given the softer economic outlook and prevailing uncertainties,” he said.

Assistant Managing Director of Kasikorn Research Center Rujipun Assarut said that ongoing trade wars may lead to increased competition in the global automotive market, worsening global car oversupply and driving down global car prices.

He said major global automotive producers, such as Japan, Germany, and South Korea, will likely diversify their car export markets while also investing in production facilities in the US to serve the local market in order to mitigate the impact of US tariff hikes.

“Increased competition in the global automotive market is expected to exacerbate global car oversupply, which currently sees production exceeding sales by 16 percent,” he said. Thai automotive manufacturing sector currently relies heavily on exports.

Contact the writer at yangwanli@chinadaily.com.cn