'Trade-related reforms, rise in standards vital' before TPP
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BEFORE DECIDING whether to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Thailand needs to improve its standards in all dimensions, as the TPP will be the new standard for the world's trading in the 21st century, the former head of Asean said yesterday. Meanwhile
Speaking at a “Thai Economy in 2016 … Opportunities and Challenges” seminar, he said Thailand had for too long been trapped in its own comfort zone, which resulted in slow development in all sectors – and especially the industrial sector.
He pointed out that Thai industries generally lacked home-grown innovation and research, focusing instead on technology transfer from foreign investment, which was not sustainable.
The Kingdom therefore needs to raise its standards across all sectors, particularly in the industrial sector, so that it can generate much more of its own technology and innovation, he suggested.
There needs be more domestic investment, as well as more investment abroad by Thai companies under the borderless market, Surin said. Thailand should encourage the world to accept Thai products that are not only “Made in Thailand” – which too often means the manufacturer is not Thai-owned – but are “Made by Thais” or “Made by Thailand”, so that no matter where Thai products are produced, they will be accepted worldwide, he told the seminar. Surin said that before deciding whether to join the US-led TPP, Thailand needed to adapt and improve across all the dimensions he had mentioned, which would ensure that the country benefited from the world’s largest trading bloc. “To join or not to join the TPP is not the key point. It depends on how we [Thailand] can develop our standards and prepare for reaping benefits from the TPP, as well as from other economic-cooperation pacts, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership [RCEP] among 16 member states, and the soon-to-be- implemented Asean Economic Community,” he said.
Otherwise, if the Kingdom did nothing other to participate in the RCEP and AEC, it would not get major gains from those free-trade pacts, as other countries would already have developed their standards, he added. Other key areas in which Thailand needs to develop are in the provision of a stronger focus on science and innovation in the industrial sector, further development of education standards, reform of laws and regulations, promotion of the country’s intellectual-property-rights standards, and the development of customs procedures and the government procurement system, Surin said.
He also called for the government and the private sector to join forces in encouraging more Thai companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to invest overseas, as businesses could no longer only operate domestically amid an increasingly globalised environment.
Vallop Vitanakorn, vice chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, told the forum that the government needed to announce clearly its intentions in regard to joining the TPP, while the 12 current TPP member states undergo their ratification process, as many industries would be negatively affected if the country were not part of the world’s largest trading bloc.
“Then, during the waiting period for TPP ratification, the country should move ahead on development and reforming our laws and standards, as suggested by Surin. The country cannot [afford to] be left behind in any trade pacts, especially the TPP, as many orders from our overseas buyers have already shifted to Vietnam and other TPP members,” he said.
Clarification over whether to join the TPP is also important for Thai companies, so that they can decide on whether to invest in countries that have already signed up to the partnership.
