สาส์นจากนายกสมาคม TRA PRESIDENT VIEW

Recently, the group of Member of Parliament has presented the draft of Rubber Benefits Sharing Act B.E. … and now it is in the process of gathering the suggestions from related parties via a website since 25 February 2020 following the section 77 in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2017. According to the draft of the Rubber Benefits Sharing Act B.E. …, it determines the regulations on the management system, production control, distribution, and rubber benefits sharing. The Act will determine the duties of smallholders, agricultural cooperatives, factories, and rubber distributors. The Act also determines the regulations and methods of rubber import and export. In addition, it determines regulations and methods of rubber prices as well as further rubber benefits expense of rubber factories or distributors. Moreover, the Act also determines the authorities of officers and the penalties for violators. Furthermore, the Act determines to have the rubber benefits sharing committee, Board of Directors, Board of Directors of rubber benefits sharing funding, and the office of rubber benefits sharing committee under Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives which will have authority in establishing rubber benefits sharing funding.

The draft of the Rubber Benefits Sharing Act B.E. … is inspired by Sugar Cane and Granulated Sugar Act B.E. 1984. The draft is comprehensive both in upstream and midstream. From the Thai Rubber Association perspective, the Rubber Benefits Sharing Act B.E. … will affect the rubber industry. So TRA had sent the representative to attend the " Rubber Benefit Sharing Act, the New Dimension of Thailand's Rubber System: Who'll be the Beneficiary?" meeting, which was held by the Rubber Economics & Analytics Researchers (REA) of Kasetsart University on March 4, 2020, at Kasetsart University. The related parties also attended the meeting. The meeting results can be inferred as follow: 1) domestic rubber prices will higher than export rubber prices which will directly affect to downstream in competitiveness; furthermore, it might cause the production relocation which contrasts with the government policy in increasing domestic rubber consumption; 2) the draft of the Rubber Benefits Sharing Act is duplicate with the Rubber Control Act, Rubber Authority of Thailand Act and Price of Goods and Services Act, B.E. 1999, especially the authority of the committee and benefits sharing in Section 16; 3) rubber is different from sugar cane and granulated sugar. Rubber is a long-lived perennial plant; meanwhile, sugar cane is short-lived field crops. It’s difficult to control rubber supply and demand; moreover, there is a rubber futures market that is volatile. Meanwhile, granulated sugar has physical delivery in the London and New York markets, etc; 4) the information of total rubber area, tapped area, and rubber costs in each related parties are not the same which will cause the difficulty in management as the draft of the Rubber Benefits Sharing Act; 5) the service charge for research and rubber production promote aside from cess will affect rubber farmers; 6) the high penalties of the Rubber Benefits Sharing Act are both imprisonment and fines. Moreover, the principle of the Act might be contrast with the principle of the World Trade Organization (WTO), especially if the government is too subsidizes, the competitor countries might sue as the same as the sugar cane goods case that had been happened.

The Thai Rubber Association concerned about the large impacts of the draft of the Rubber Benefits Sharing Act B.E. … toward the rubber industry. Therefore, TRA agreed to assign the working group to study and follow up on the Rubber Benefits Sharing Act. The Thai Rubber Association was honored by Mr. Vorathep Wongsasuthikul, TRA Vice President, to take the chairman position of the working group that will conduct a meeting for both the working group and related parties to follow up the issue in the future.