Cambodia welcomes Thai boycott of certain commercial exchange

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Commerce Minister ChamPrasidh on Sunday welcomed the Thai government's recent decision to stop its fruit export to Cambodia and cancel its annual product exhibition in the kingdom.

"Cambodia will not be affected" by this decision, he told Xinhua at the airport while receiving a senior Kuwaiti delegation.

It is a good thing that they stop fruit export and cancel product exhibition, because some Cambodians would become angry and destroy those products on show if they didn't do so, he said.

"It could make turmoil," he said, adding that the 20-day-long military standoff between the two countries at the border area has made the Cambodian people reluctant to buy Thai products.

Dispute over the ownership of the Preah Vihear Temple in the eponymous Cambodian province and the land around it has propelled both sides to station over a thousand troops at the border area since July 15. All diplomatic efforts have failed so far to retrieve the situation.

Trade volume between Cambodia and Thailand stood at 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2007, a 10.56 percent increase over 2006, according to the figures released by the Cambodian Commerce Ministry in March this year.

Thailand cancels product fairs in Cambodia

Saturday, August 02, 2008
TNA

Department of Export Promotion (DEP) has canceled longan and Thailand Exhibition fair scheduled to be held in Cambodia this month due to a strong sentiment among Cambodians opposing Thai products following the temple row between the two countries, a senior Thai commerce ministry official said Saturday.

Northern Export Promotion Center director Boon Inthirat said longan growers in three districts of Chiang Mai province in Thailand's north had planned to transport more than 10 tons of longan for sale at two shopping malls in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on Saturday and Sunday.

But the plan was canceled following advice by the Thai commercial office in Phnom Penh relating to strong sentiment among Cambodians boycotting Thai goods following a dispute between the two neighboring countries over an overlapping area around the Preah Vihear temple.

Also, another fair called the Thailand Exhibition in which more than 200 Thai producers would participate in displaying goods in Phnom Penh later this month has already been canceled. The fair was held in August in the past years, said Mr. Boon.