The future of Thai seafood exports to Europe depends on measures to tackle illegal fishing but the prime minister says he cannot guarantee that the country will meet the deadline.
Thailand has been given six months to prove to the European Union that it is cleaning up the fishery and eliminating forced and slave labour. If it cannot do so, it could lose the opportunity to export 575 million euros a year worth of seafood to the 27-country bloc.
"I cannot guarantee that we will able to solve the problem in six months," he said. "It depends on everybody, whether or not we can meet this time frame."
His statement ran counter to that of Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, who promised earlier that the EU would withdraw its "yellow card" within the next six months.
However, most people in the fishing industry believe that Gen Prawit's optimism is misplaced and say real reform will take a long time as successive governments have ignored mounting problems.
To eliminate the threat of an EU ban, Thailand needs to improve fishery-related laws and make more serious efforts to prevent illegal catches and the use of forced labour by fishing vessels.