Thailand plans to wrap commerce negotiations with Efta nations by early next year appears to be the key objective for Thailand’s trade representatives. The chief negotiator, Auramon Supthaweethum, who can be the director-general of the Department of Trade Negotiations, shared that the recent two-level discussions are going down in Oslo, Norway.
The fifth spherical of the Thai-Efta FTA negotiations has started, and each events are in the process of settling the remaining points and aiming for an accelerated joint decision. These negotiations are believed to be at the halfway level, and the objective is to conclude them within the first quarter of 2024.
In this round, negotiators and sub-groups from each parties are concerned in the talks. Heading the Thai delegation is Auramon, while Efta is represented by Markus Schlagenhof, the organisation’s spokesman and Federal Council for Trade Agreements delegate from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
There are Bonanza working groups collaborating in the discussions: commerce in items; rules of origin; sanitary and phytosanitary measures; technical barriers to commerce; trade in companies; funding; e-commerce; authorities procurement; mental property rights; sustainable commerce and improvement; dispute settlement; and cooperation and capacity building.
The Efta includes four international locations: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. Thailand and Efta launched talks on a potential FTA in June last yr after preliminary discussions from 2005 to 2006 were stalled.
On common, the annual commerce between Thailand and Efta from 2018 to 2022 amounted to US$9.eighty five billion. In 2022, Efta was Thailand’s 14th-largest trading partner, with a complete commerce worth of US$11.5 billion, a 54% year-on-year enhance. The commerce worth between each events reached US$3.04 billion within the first 4 months of this yr..