Bad press for Thailand continues

Post by **LoongLee** » July 27, 2015, 8:26 pm

What's next? The international press will not let up on the slave trafficking in SEA and Thailand's part in it. They desperately need to get their house in order. They can not continue to just give the problem lip service and hope the issue goes away.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wir ... a-32703127

Post by **parrot** » July 27, 2015, 8:47 pm

The same story on the front page of the New York Times

Post by **Jing Jing** » July 28, 2015, 7:29 am

Sounds more like Thailand is too close to China and the West wants to remind it of its place. Hence the proposed purchase of Chinaese subs was scrapped. Yes Thailand has problems it won't adequately address but these become the levers the West can use to economically control the country.

Post by **Khun Paul** » July 28, 2015, 8:03 am

There are times when people write absolute rubbish, Thailand has not been elevated to tier Two as they are in fact very lax in the Human Trafficking enforcement, shown by the amount of senior figures currently under investigation Note use of the word currently, not one court case of note, and NO convictions of any substance. Coupled with the fishermen and other labouyr issues, Thailand has had along history of ignoring migrant labour whether legal or illegal.
Whether it likes it or not apart from Chine Thailand needs the rest of the world to recognise it as a good place to buy from as well as invest in. Thier platitudes of we have done a good job so far is rather childish, they only started doing something when they were exposed.
True in their defence their latest actions are not in this report, so they will have wait for the next one. A salutary warning to Thailand, no matter what they ( Thai Officials think ) Thailand is under the spotlight and the only way to get out from under is to be transparent and change talk to action with visible results and convictions .

Post by **wazza** » July 28, 2015, 8:29 am

same story but more detailed from a different Author

http://m.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-a ... et-journey

The issue here is the EU issued a warning on banning the Thai exports of seafood, said to be worth $ Billions

Post by **Jing Jing** » July 28, 2015, 2:14 pm

So why did the State Department give Malaysia a better grade? The Obama administration would simply argue that Kuala Lumpur has made modest improvements. But the upgrade also conveniently allows the president to secure Malaysia's place in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the cornerstone of his trade agenda. The TPP includes 12 nations and will cover 40 percent of the global economy. Follow the money.

Post by **Astana** » July 28, 2015, 2:24 pm

Thailand needs help not hindrance from the world's so-called policeman (a disappointing policeman at that), this decision seems on first pass to be politically motivated and not upgrading to tier 2 may in fact prolong military governance when a return to democratic government is essential to Thailand's long-term future. With Malaysia, Cuba and of all countries Uzbekistan having been upgraded from tier 3 to the tier 2 watch list that political motivation is unveiled for all to see.