EABC to continue its support towardsThai-EU FTA

Regardless of the political situation the European business community has always called for improvement against corruption, transparency in public procurement, stronger enforcement of the law for violators, and equal treatment of foreign businesses through liberalisation of the service sector.

These issues are an essential part of the Thai EU FTA negotiations. EABC was instrumental in the reviving of the negotiation process and supported the EU positions with two business position papers, questionnaires and joint meetings with the EU Delegation and several Thai authorities. We had the opinion that the Thai government is very much interested to pass the FTA quickly and seem very cooperative during the last four negotiation rounds. EABC strongly recommends preserving the impetus and not suspending the negotiation process due the current events. Suspension could jeopardize a golden opportunity to achieve a landmark deal between the two economic areas.

A continuation and hopefully quick conclusion of the negotiations will greatly benefit European businesses in Thailand. At the same time we expect that this will lead to more transparency, less corruption and a speedier return to an approval process with more checks and balances.

The EABC and the European business community stand ready to cooperate with the EU negotiating team, Thailand and its business community to bring to a successful conclusion these FTA negotiations.