bilaterals.org logo
bilaterals.org logo

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


Talks propose to expand India FTA
Thailand’s Commerce Ministry has opened talks with India to add 7,000 new products to their free trade agreement.
PM urged to guarantee transparency
Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission and intellectual property law experts have called on Prime Minister Gen Surayud Chulanont to draft a trade negotiation bill to guarantee transparency in trade talks.
FTA Watch calls on Prime Minister to stop all FTAs until law on international agreements is enacted
About 100 representatives from FTA Watch gathered in front of the Government House in Bangkok to submit a letter to PM Surayud Chulanont calling for a halt in all ongoing FTA negotiations and in signing the concluded ones.
Thailand negotiating FTA w/ Peru
Thailand will press forward in negotiating the free trade area (FTA) agreement with Peru, hoping to promote the export sector and create gateways to Brazil and Argentina.
Indian business groups wary of Thai FTA
Under pressure from local industrialists who fear they are losing out to foreign competition, the Indian government is reviewing a number of free-trade pacts, including those pending with Thailand and Asean.
Thailand halts trade talks until new government
Thailand will suspend all bilateral free trade talks until a new civilian government is elected a year from now, Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram said on Wednesday, following last month’s coup.
Coup puts Indo-Thai free trade deal in doldrums
An ambitious free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Thailand may have been stalled indefinitely by the Sep. 19 military coup. The two countries were meant to renegotiate the FTA after elections in Thailand set for mid-October, but this process is now shrouded in uncertainty.
Thailand: Restore basic civil rights, NGOs urge
Thailand’s new NGO Network for Political and Social Reform says it wants the military-led Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy and the interim government to scrap free-trade agreements and the privatisation of state enterprises.
Democrats outline plans for trade and investment
Trade and investment will be an integral part of the Democrat Party’s economic policies to convince the private sector of Thailand’s sustainable development.
All FTAs are not created equal
Thai exporters and importers have benefited from the free-trade agreements with Australia and India but reaped fewer benefits from Asean’s FTA with China, according to a survey by the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI).

    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.