Thailand remains attractive

 To Srirat Rastapana, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, the questions showed Thailand's relative attractiveness to foreign investment.
 "Thailand is now among the top 20 countries in global trade and investment. In 2010, the value of exports and imports accounted fro 135 per cent of gross domestic product. Thailand was ranked the 19th in terms of exports and the 17th in terms of imports. For the service sector, the ranking was the 16th in terms of export and the 14th in terms of import," Srirat said.
 On the first day of such review, starting from Nov 28 to Nov 30, most WTO members expressed condolences to Thailand following the flood disaster. They were also impressed that despite the disaster, Thailand maintained the participation and consequently demonstrated its commitment to promote trade. 
 Srirat said that though Thailand's external exposure is huge, the country is resilient to external factors and ready to cope with new challenges. However, a drop in foreign direct investment in the past years was attributable to political instability, foreign ownership limits particularly in service and agricultural sectors, as well as complicated tax structure. Political instability also results in a delay in economic restructuring in many areas, including intellectual property protection, privatisation and service sector development.
 "The WTO members suggested improvements in the areas of customs procedures, tax structure, corruption, rules and regulations on foreign investment and intellectual property protection, if Thailand wants to promote international trade and enhance its capacity," Srirat said.
 The review is under the WTO's Trade Policy Review Mechanism, taking place every four years for developing countries including Thailand and every two years for developed economies.