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Thailand

FTAs became a big social and political issue in Thailand ever since former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra agreed, in 2003, to negotiate a comprehensive bilateral deal with the United States. A broad multisectoral coalition in Thailand, called FTA Watch, monitors and mobilises around Thailand’s FTA policies quite frequently, given the deep-cutting and far-reaching nature of these deals for Thai society.

Apart from the Thai-US talks, Thailand has signed a limited FTA with Laos (1991) and another with China (agriculture only, 2003), framework agreements with Bahrain (as stepping stone toward an FTA with the GCC, 2002), Peru (2003) and India (2003), and fairly comprehensive FTAs with Australia (2003), New Zealand (2005) and Japan (2007).

Since 2006 and the current political crisis, Thailand’s pace of FTA negotiations has slowed down. (The government is technically still in negotiation with the US, EFTA, India, Peru and Papua New Guinea, while there has been talk of further deals with Chile, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa and Canada.) Meanwhile, civil society groups have insisted that the new Thai constitution include a provision, in Section 190, that requires Parliamentary ratification and much more public information about all FTAs that the Thai cabinet considers going into.

Regionally, Thailand is member of ASEAN and therefore part of that bloc’s FTA dealings with China, Korea, India, Australia/New Zealand and the EU. It is also part of BIMSTEC and, under Thaksin at least, was the protagonist pushing for greater trade and investment integration in the Mekong region under ACMECS, a framework for cooperation between Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

last update: May 2012
Photo: FTA Watch


Milk farmers plead for help before FTA
The Milk For Thai Club forecasts dairy farming will be hit hard if the government does not seriously help farmers before signing free trade area (FTA) agreements on dairy products with Australia and other countries.
Thailand, Indonesia to sign fishery, food, auto pact by 1st half
Commerce ministers of Thailand and Indonesia on Saturday agreed to launch a bilateral trade agreement on economic cooperation
Crucial ASEAN bills pass in rowdy house session
Thai lawmakers yesterday approved a total of 41 crucial Asean agreements after a stormy House session was suspended twice due to heated debates. Among the pacts were free-trade agreements between Asean and India, China and Australia & New Zealand.
Crisis may lead to more non-tariff barriers
Many of Thailand’s trading partners are expected to implement non-tariff barriers this year to shield their markets from a flood of imports as a looming global recession prompts governments to negotiate free-trade pacts.
Thailand: Status as regional leader in doubt
The inability of the government to function lessens the prospect of Thailand failing to get parliament’s approval of trade deals vital for ASEAN’s economic agenda. The country needs to get the legislature’s backing for 30 agreements, including an ASEAN-India free trade agreement and an ASEAN-South Korea free trade agreement.
Thailand and Peru plan FTA talks
Thailand and Peru are exploring a possible bilateral free trade pact as the Peruvian government would like to see see the surged trading between the two countries, according to Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.
PM: Megaprojects will go on
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat has told European Union delegates his government will solve Thailand’s political crisis through democratic means to ensure the country’s planned megaprojects can proceed.
Narongchai: Put pacts on a faster track
The government needs to address existing legal issues that impede international trade agreements, says Narongchai Akrasanee, a member of the cabinet’s economic advisory team.
CP adding feed plants in India
The Charoen Pokphand Group, Thailand’s largest agribusiness conglomerate, is preparing to expand in India by establishing two more animal feed plants.
Wiroon: Thai-Indian FTA set to expand
Thailand hopes to ratify a full free-trade agreement with India within this year if the political situations in the two countries don’t change, according to Deputy Commerce Minister Wiroon Techapaiboon.

    Links


  • FTA Watch (Thailand)
    A broad social coalition monitoring, analysing and mobilising around the Thai government’s FTA strategies.
  • Thai FTA
    A Thai government website, produced by the Department of Trade Negotiations, on Thailand’s different FTA negotiations.