Discussion on International Trade Policy with Vice Minister for Commerce, Mr. Winichai Chaemchaeng, on 11 November 2016

On 11 November 2016, Ministry of Commerce held a meeting with European Association for Business and Commerce (EABC) and European-ASEAN Business Council (EU-ABC)’s Delegation. Vice Minister for Commerce, Mr. Winichai Chaemchaeng, welcomed the EABC President, Mr. Rolf-Dieter Daniel, Chairman of EU-ABC, Mr. Donald Kanak, and their executives to the meeting.

The meeting was also joined by Deputy Director-General of the Department of Trade Negotiations, Ms. Siripan Likhitwiwat and representatives from Department of Intellectual Property. The meeting discussed on Thailand talking leadership in the region to eliminate non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to meet ASEAN Blueprint 2025. Other issues comprised of intellectual property and trademark protection, Draft of Tobacco Products Control Act, ASEAN harmonization of customs procedures, foreign equity limits, and harmonization of standards in ASEAN to improve trades and investments in ASEAN. The largest source of FDI in ASEAN comes from European investors; the Delegation supports the Royal Thai Government to enhance transparency, ease of doing business and trade facilitation to increase investments to Thailand. Vice Minister for Commerce remarked that EABC has a long history with the Ministry and is special for the Ministry of Commerce. The EABC is welcomed to call for meetings whenever the organization has the issues to discuss with the Ministry.