Concluding remarks by the Chairperson

1. The sixth review of Thailand’s trade policies has taken place against the backdrop of recent severe flooding in the country that has led to the deaths of hundreds of people and caused severe damage to the Kingdom’s infrastructure and production valued at over 2.3% of GDP. Indeed, the damage caused by the flooding was felt beyond Thailand’s borders as it disrupted international supply chains for both industrial and agricultural goods. I would also like to take this opportunity to add my appreciation to the Thai delegation for providing replies to the questions despite the disruptions caused by the flooding.

2. Thailand has a relatively open economy and trade and investment have played important roles in its development. Economic growth over the past decades, including over the past few years, has been impressive and the economy recovered strongly from a recession in first half of 2009 caused by the global financial crisis to grow by nearly 8% in 2010. In turn, strong economic growth has led to a decline in poverty and Thailand has been able to meet its Millennium Development Goals ahead of time. Members commended Thailand for its active participation in the DDA and its strong support for the multilateral trading system.

3. This review of Thailand has been able to note that it did not take any new measures to restrict trade since the 2008 global financial crisis. Indeed, it has made some important improvements to trading conditions in some areas, such as its adoption of paperless import procedures and its intention to move to a single window. Furthermore, an appeals system has been introduced by the Customs Department to cover many aspects of import procedures. As a member of ASEAN, Thailand has adopted the Association’s harmonised tariff nomenclature which has also helped facilitate trade by standardising the customs codes used to identify products.

4. Thailand, with its trade and current account surpluses, continues to pursue a policy of export led growth. But with low growth in its traditional export markets, a number of delegations asked if it would put greater emphasis on domestic consumption. Thailand is also a member of ASEAN and actively participates in its negotiations with other countries. It has also negotiated its own free trade agreements. The result has been overlapping trade agreements which can make it confusing for exporters as they face a variety of import charges or different rules of origin. Members also noted that foreign direct investment has declined over the past few years and they pointed out several existing measures that obstruct investment, such as limits on foreign ownership.

5. Furthermore, most of the delegations drew attention to areas of Thailand’s import and domestic policies that they felt hampered trading opportunities and impeded its development. Among the issues raised by delegations and referred to in the Secretariat Report were:

• Agriculture: Thailand is an important producer and exporter of several agriculture products, particularly rice. Although the immediate concern for the country is recovery from recent flooding, a number of delegations also expressed concern about current agricultural policy, such as domestic support and tariff quota administration, and their impact on trade;

• Complex tariffs: With ad valorem tariffs, specific duties and compound tariffs charged at various rates on different products, Thailand has a complicated tariff structure. Furthermore, Members noted that Thailand continues to have a large number of unbound tariffs all of which creates uncertainty and distorts trade;

• Technical Barriers to Trade and SPS Measures: Thailand was encouraged to make greater use of international standards for both TBT and SPS measures and to improve transparency in developing standards and applying them. There were also concerns about health warnings on alcohol products;

• Complex income tax, corporation tax and excise duties: In addition to a complicated tariff system, Thailand also has complex systems of income and corporation tax which makes compliance expensive and acts as a deterrent to investment. Furthermore, some delegations stated that the different excise duties on similar products tended to favour domestically produced goods to the detriment of imports of, for example, alcoholic drinks;

• Intellectual property: Several Members noted the steps taken by Thailand to improve the protection of intellectual property and the Thai delegation also emphasised the importance of a strong and efficient intellectual property system, particularly since the launch of the Creative Economy Policy in 2009. However, the current system was still considered to be deficient and several problems, including counterfeiting and piracy, were pointed out by Members;

• Trade in services: Despite progress in the liberalization of trade in some services sectors, Members continued to be concerned by foreign ownership and market access restrictions in some areas, such as financial services (particularly insurance), telecommunications, maritime and professional services. It was also noted that Thailand has yet to modify its GATS schedule following the negotiations on telecommunications in 1997. Also on services, concerns were raised about new regulations that appear to impose criteria that could restrict foreign participation in telecommunications, insurance and logistics.

• Regulation: Several delegations mentioned the need for enhanced regulation of several sectors, particularly financial and other services and it was noted that Thailand has committed to liberalize the regulatory regime with legislation governing key sectors, such as transport, distribution, and telecommunications under review.

6. In conclusion, Thailand, as a major exporter of industrial and agricultural products as well as services, is an important player on the world market and its policy decisions have impacts well beyond its borders. This, the sixth review of Thailand’s trade policies, has taken place at a very important time. Following the global financial crisis that started in 2008 and the recent flooding in Thailand along with current uncertainty in the global economy, the policy direction that Thailand is going to take will be very important for its future development.