Thai Chamber of Commerce urges government to resume bilateral FTA negotiations

BANGKOK, October 16 (TNA) - Thai Trade Representative (TTR) Pichet Sathirachawan says Thai Chamber of Commerce has urged the government to resume talks on the stalled negotiations of the bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA), especially with the United States and European Union (EU), to avoid the loss of export market to neighboring countries.

According to the senior TRR official, representatives of the Thai Chamber of Commerce have recently met with the TTR officials in a bid to encourage the TTR to lobby the Thai government to conclude the negotiations with the US and EU.

Pichet said Sunday that the representatives of the Thai Chamber of Commerce warned that many Southeast Asian nations including Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam were racing to conclude their own trade deals with the US and the EU.

He said quoting the representatives of the Thai Chamber of Commerce that the Singapore-US FTA negotiation, in particular, would hurt Thailand’s export of food and agricultural products to the US, upon its completion, noting that the trade pact would enable the export of these Singaporean products from ASEAN to enjoy zero or relatively low tariffs access to the Kingdom’s largest export market.

Pichet promised he would forward the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s demand to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra as soon as possible. (TNA)