Talks with 4 European nations to resume soon

The talks will be resumed after the draft negotiation recently won parliamentary ratification, said Jintana Chaiyawonnagal, deputy director-general of the department.

EFTA comprises Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, and this bloc is Thailand’s 10th-largest trading partner. The last round of negotiations was held in 2006, two years after they started.

The talks will cover 17 issues to ensure Thailand’s competitiveness while drawing more investment from the four countries.

Jintana said officials would soon proceed with the negotiation process so that a free-trade agreement can be struck to promote more trade and investment.

“An FTA with [these] European countries should help maintain Thailand’s competitiveness amid globalisation. Thailand could be a centre in Asean for attracting more investment from this market, which are [collectively] the Kingdom’s sixth-largest foreign investor,” she said.

She added that the FTA would also help ensure Thai goods can be exported with low tariffs to Switzerland and Norway, which are also members of the European Union. The EU is scheduled to cut its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) for developing countries, including Thailand, next year.

The 17 issues that will be discussed with the EFTA are liberalisation of trade in goods, customs procedures and trade facilitation, rules of origin, remedy measures, balance-of-trade protection measures, sanitary and psytosanitary, technical trade barriers, service trading, investment, government dispute settlement, intellectual property rights, government procurement, transparency, competitiveness, trade and sustainable development, cooperation, and overall benefit for Thailand.

According to the department, about 43 per cent of export products from Thailand have benefited from Switzerland’s GSP, and 41 per cent have benefited from Norway’s.

The Commerce Ministry has reported that EFTA is a high-potential market for Thailand, as trade has been increasing each year. Average annual trade during the past three years was US$12.56 billion (Bt392.8 billion), growing by 37 per cent a year. Last year, two-way trade reached $13.45 billion.

The four countries in EFTA are collectively the sixth-largest foreign investor in Thailand with combined initial capital of $2.93 billion.