Such
range of cons
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consumer goods as rice, soap powder, batterics,
transistor radios, tyres and vehicle parts. Whereas the
Thai baht is an acceptable currency for border trading with Laos, the kyat is sometimes used for deals on the Burmese
side with traders fixing their own exchange rate.
7. A particularly good example of a town founded on exports from Thailand is Mac Sai, connected as it is by a concrete bridge over a shallow, easily forded river with the Burmese town of Tachilek. Mae Sai looks prosperous. One can stand on the bridge and observe goods being carried across the river quite openly within yards of the Thai and Burmese customs posts. The important point to remember about such a town, however, is that even though it appears to be Thai in the sense of being part of the Kingdom of Thailand it has a separate kind of existence of its own with only flimsy links with the government in Bangkok. In this respect at least, Mae Sai is just the same as most other Thai provincial towns.
8. The government in Bangkok appears to administer Thailand yet the existence of small rebel armies and of fully constit- uted towns based on illegaltrading raises doubts. Is Bangkok in charge or not? There is after all a unified national police force of which the BPF is a part) and a unified national aray. Why do not these organisati no put a stop to illegal border trading? As far es towns such as Mae Sai go, the attitude would undoubtedly be that most goode are being exported and no export duties are payable. Imports, on the other hand, are carried clandestinely by the rebel armies and no effort
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