Thailand’s new Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin is vowing to aggressively pursue free trade agreements as a pillar of his economic policy saying the pacts are key to propelling higher growth for the Kingdom’s exports and overall development.

“Thailand is open for business with all countries,” said Srettha. “We will give importance to negotiating more FTAs (free trade agreements).”

The Prime Minister said rival economies had been drawing more investments than Thailand in recent years because the Kingdom has fewer FTAs. He said that higher wages were not deterring companies from choosing the Kingdom as an investment destination, but that the previous government had not been as vigorous in securing trade agreements that would make the country more attractive to investors.

Thailand has 14 free trade agreements with 18 countries. The latest is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, an FTA that links the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and Republic of Korea.

The Kingdom is currently engaged in negotiations for another three FTAs that it hopes to sign by the end of this year, according to the Prime Minister. The most significant of those is an FTA with the European Union. The government is also pursuing free trade deals with the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka.

Talks have also begun with South Korea about a possible FTA, although neither nation has made a firm commitment to achieving that outcome.

Thailand and the United States were negotiating an FTA in the early-to-mid 2000s, but both sides agreed to drop the possibility until a later time. At that time, many parts of the world were experiencing a public backlash against FTAs with demonstrations erupting at meetings of the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and other supranational institutions.

Source: Royal Thai Embassy, Washington D.C.