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2022 Plan: Department of Trade Negotiations moves forward with new FTA negotiations
Plan for 2022: Department of Trade Negotiations pushes forward to open new FTA negotiations, expanding trade and investment opportunities
Open negotiations for a new FTA
Mrs. Aromman Traiphutham, Director-General of the Department of International Trade Negotiations, revealed that for the 2022 international trade negotiation work plan, including the meeting of the Joint Trade Committee (JTC) with major trading partners
To solve trade barriers and strengthen economic and trade cooperation, and the plan to prepare for the negotiation of new free trade agreements is in line with the policy that requires accelerating the resolution of export barriers for Thai entrepreneurs.
The JTC meeting plan at the ministerial level is one of the important mechanisms for creating economic alliances and expanding Thailand’s trade and investment with trading partners. The department has prepared to host the JTC meeting with at least 10 trading partners, such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, South Korea, Russia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Bhutan, and the Maldives.
Also, he joined the JTC meeting hosted by trading partners such as China and Bangladesh. He hoped that the JTC meeting would be a good opportunity for Thailand and its trading partners to discuss and strengthen economic cooperation, trade and investment, increase trade facilitation, and resolve trade barriers between each other.
The Department also has plans to open new FTA negotiations that are currently being expedited to create understanding about the expectations of the negotiations and to accelerate the domestic process to create a policy-level negotiation framework, including:
Opening negotiations with the European Union, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) comprising Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
Consisting of Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, most of which will be FTAs with the group of countries to expand trade and investment opportunities with countries that are Thailand’s main and new markets and to connect Thailand with the global production chain.
In addition, it has expedited the conclusion of pending negotiations to be completed as soon as possible, such as FTA negotiations with Turkey, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as well as the ASEAN-Canada FTA, which opened negotiations in mid-November.
Currently, Thailand has 14 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with 18 countries, including ASEAN, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, South Korea, Chile, Peru, India, and Hong Kong (RCEP is Thailand’s latest FTA and the largest FTA in the world).
For the first 9 months of 2021 (Jan-Sep), trade between Thailand and 18 FTA negotiation partners was worth a total of 253,212.2 million US dollars, an increase of 25.2% compared to the same period of the previous year, accounting for 63.6% of Thailand’s total trade.
Thailand exported to 18 FTA negotiating partners worth 123,693.9 million US dollars, an increase of 18.2%, and Thailand imported from 18 FTA negotiating partners worth 129,518.3 million US dollars, an increase of 32.8%.
Information source: Prachachat Business Online
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