Japan, Thailand likely to sign bilateral FTA in April
Monday February 6, 2006
Japan, Thailand likely to sign bilateral FTA in April
(Kyodo) — Japan and Thailand are likely to sign a bilateral free trade agreement in April, a high-ranking Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry official said Monday.
The outlook emerged as the two countries wrapped up their talks on the rules of origin — one of the last remaining technical issues for completing the entire negotiations — during their talks last week, the official told Kyodo News.
Both sides had reached an in-principle accord last August after 18 months of rocky negotiations. When it was endorsed later by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his Thai counterpart Thaksin Shinawatra, the two sides said only the FTA will be signed "in the earlier part of 2006."
But speculation was rife among Japanese and Thai officials that the signing could be delayed until around June due to a gulf over the rules of origin, which are necessary to prevent roundabout trade of commodities.
Under the proposed FTA, Japan will import Thai industrial goods duty free and Thailand will liberalize 99 percent of such items’ trade with Japan in value terms in a decade, according to Japanese officials.
A Japanese economic think tank has estimated that the FTA with Thailand will boost real gross domestic product by 0.24 percent for Japan and 20.09 percent for Thailand. Japan’s annual trade amount with Thailand exceeds 3 trillion yen.
Japan has FTAs with Singapore and Mexico and signed a similar arrangement with Malaysia last December. It is in talks with the Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations as a whole.
