Grant Thornton Thailand - May 2013
Imminent start of negotiations for Thai – EU Free Trade Agreement
In November 2012, the Thai Ministerial Cabinet approved a resolution to commence a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), and negotiations have been scheduled to start later this month. The Thai Fiscal Policy Office has adopted Thailand’s position under the ASEAN – EU FTA negotiations and applied them in the context of the Thai – EU FTA negotiations. However, where the ASEAN – EU FTA negotiations were conducted using the HS 2007 product classification nomenclature, Thailand will apply the updated HS 2012 for the Thai – EU FTA.
Thailand expects two modalities for tariff reductions and elimination for trade in goods – the first being goods listed in the Normal Track schedule, and the second being goods placed in the Sensitive List. It is expected that the Normal Track schedule would cover approximately 80 percent of products in the Thai – EU FTA, while the Sensitive List would cover approximately 18 percent of products. Presently, the Department of Trade Negotiations has been seeking the private sector’s position in order to determine Thailand’s “offer and request” list for the trade in goods liberalization negotiations.
Thailand Considers Product Coverage Expansion under the Information Technology Agreement (ITA)
The WTO Ministerial Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products, also known as the Information Technology Agreement or “ITA” provides for import duty elimination for many IT products. Presently there are over 70 member countries participating in ITA, including Thailand.
In 2012, some participating members expressed a desire to revise and expand the ITA product schedule. If successful, this would mean that more IT products would be covered under the ITA import duty exemption list. Members such as Japan, Canada, China, EU, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, and Peru have expressed support for the ITA expansion. As a result, a subsequent ITA Committee meeting in late 2012 furthered the discussion on ITA expansion.
Currently, Thailand is in the process of reviewing its ITA duty exemption schedule for expansion. The Department of Trade Negotiation (DTN) has requested the private sector’s opinion on a tentative list of over 300 products to be covered in the expansion schedule. This review was done in March 2013 and presented to the DTN to incorporate into its negotiation position for the ITA expansion. Participating members have targeted the completion of the ITA expansion schedule by August 2013.
