US Trade Representative Susan Schwab was misquoted in an interview with the Straits Times newspaper on Monday as saying that "we have given up having an FTA with Thailand," the embassy said in a statement.

"The Straits Times story inadvertently dropped the word 'not' in the above quote, completely reversing the meaning of Ambassador Schwab's words," the embassy said.

The paper has agreed to run a correction on its website, the statement said.

Schwab actually said: "In the case of Thailand, that FTA stalled out shortly before the coup, and then obviously with the coup it became impossible to proceed. We have not given up having a free-trade agreement with Thailand."