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Thailand’s Commerce Minister is preparing to hold urgent talks with Myanmar following the news that Burmese officials are planning a ban on the import of Thai soft drinks over land. Jurin Laksanawisit says the reason for the ban is not known, with Myanmar insisting only imports via ship will be allowed. This ramps up the cost for Thai businesses and is believed to be the result of ongoing political unrest in the neighbouring country.

From May 1, Myanmar is expected to implement a ban on Thai drink imports via land, understood to be worth around 10 billion baht a year. According to a Bangkok Post report, the ban affects all soft drinks, including sweetened condensed milk and instant coffee, which will only be permitted into Myanmar via ship.

There has been some speculation that many citizens in Myanmar are calling for a boycott of all goods from companies affiliated with the Burmese army. On February 1, the military staged a coup which ousted the democratically-elected government of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The country has been in turmoil ever since, with anti-coup protests being met with increasing violence from the military regime.

The Bangkok Post reports that between January and February this year, the value of drinks exports to Myanmar rose by 10% to 2 billion baht. The exports are valued at around 10 billion baht a year, with the drinks usually sent via land checkpoints in Ranong, as well as the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai and the Mae Sot district in Tak.

Jurin says he plans to ask Burmese officials to reconsider the ban, pointing out that Thailand has also imported large volumes of goods from Myanmar, but the value of such imports remains low while transportation is affected by the ongoing unrest.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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With many more businesses being told to pull down their shutters in Bangkok from midnight tonight, there are now calls to just go the next step and impose a full lockdown as the infection numbers keep mounting up. With the additional 31 types of business closed, on top of the current restrictions in Bangkok, the BMA has all but imposed the “L” word without actually saying it.

In Bangkok, alone, yesterday there were 1,582 Covid infections reported by the CCSA.

In the days before Songkran PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, asked if they should restrict Songkran travel because of the rising case numbers (in the 10s at that stage, not 1000s), he replied…

“Whatever will be, will be. The reason is, it’s a matter that involves a huge number of people. The government will have to try to cope with that later.”

Meanwhile, on April 16, Deputy PM Wissanu Kreangam dismissed the possibility of curfews in red zone provinces, claiming “it is not needed”. Wissanu maintains that the colour-coded zones are “efficient at this stage”.

Now the government’s desire for Songkran to go ahead, and the consequences of those decisions, are coming back to bite them.

The PM’s “later” is now.

Even last Friday night PM Prayut said on TV that the government had no plans to lock down the country despite the daily case reports over 2,000 for the past 3 days and nearly 3,000 yesterday.

Medical professionals, from a range of fields, are now calling on the Thai government to go into full lockdown to control the spread of the virus. As it is, with the country broken into red and orange zones, there are enforced closing times at many businesses and Bangkok has an additional regime of closure starting from midnight tonight. You can read about that HERE.

So, many argue, we already have a partial lockdown already and the government should just take the additional step, and enforce it.

PM Prayut responded to the calls on his Facebook page yesterday saying that he gave provincial governors the power to add local curfews if they deemed it necessary.

“Provincial governors have the authority to tighten disease control measures and close premises in addition to any closures ordered by the government. If the pandemic worsens, the 14 day quarantine period for asymptomatic patients treated at hospitals may be reduced to 10 days so they can be self-quarantined at home with a tracking system.”

Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha, speaking to the Bangkok Post, said that the latest wave of infections “has reached a critical point as there are not enough medical personnel to take care of. In light of this, the ministry has asked the prime minister to tighten measures to curb the transmissions”.

Thailand yesterday recorded a total of 2,839 new infections, another record 24 hour reporting period. Sunday’s total is 2,438 infections.

At the peak of the first wave in April 2020 Thailand recorded 188 cases in one day. In the second wave, concentrated around migrant workers in Samut Sakhon in December and January, the largest daily tally was 959 people.

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