‘Historic day’ as Thailand kick-starts stalled FTA talks with EU
Thailand and the European Union (EU) will relaunch free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations in July, aiming to reach a deal by 2025.
“Today is a historic day that Thailand and 27 countries under the EU decided to resume FTA talks after almost 10 years of effort,” said Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit after a video conference with EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.
Thailand will host the first senior-level meeting this year in July, said Jurin, who also doubles as a deputy prime minister. Oramon Sapthaweetham, director-general of the Department of Trade Negotiations (DTN) will lead the FTA negotiations with EU delegates covering trade, services, investment and other subjects.
Once agreement has been reached on all topics, the FTA will be approved by each government before being ratified and signed.
The resumption comes after Jurin visited Brussels in January to lay the groundwork for talks with Dombrovskis.
On February 14, the Cabinet gave a green light to kick-start the stalled negotiations.
The commerce minister said the Thai-EU FTA will eliminate tariffs on Thai exports to 27 European countries. The pact will be especially beneficial to sectors such as automobiles and components, electronic equipment, clothes, textiles, food, rubber, chemicals and plastics.
He said it would also generate service sector opportunities in areas where Thailand has expertise, such as wholesale and retail trade, food production, and tourism. Meanwhile, Thailand’s manufacturing sector would benefit from zero import tariffs, especially for machinery equipment and chemicals.
Both sides would also benefit from mutual investment, he said, with Thailand receiving technology transfer and innovation from EU members.
Thailand currently has 14 FTAs with 18 countries. The new FTA with the EU will increase the number of partner countries to 45.
With a population of almost 500 million, the EU is Thailand’s 4th largest trade partner, with total trade in 2022 of US$41 billion (1.41 trillion baht), or 7% of Thailand’s international trade. Last year Thailand ran a trade surplus with the EU of 150 billion baht.
