EFTA States and Thailand meet for their third round of negotiations

EFTA and Thailand Heads of delegation

Ambassador Markus Schlagenhof, Delegate of the Federal Council for Trade Agreements at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, acted as the EFTA spokesperson, while Director General Auramon Supthaweetum from the Department of Trade Negotiations in the Ministry of Commerce of Thailand, headed the Thai delegation.

Discussions took place at heads level and in fifteen expert groups to address trade in goods, rules of origin, trade facilitation, SPS, TBT, trade in services, e-commerce, investment, trade remedies, competition, legal and horizontal issues and dispute settlement, government procurement, trade and sustainable development, cooperation and capacity building and intellectual property rights.

The exchanges were productive and result-oriented, allowing for substantial progress in many areas. You can find EFTA’s objectives in the negotiations with the Kingdom of Thailand here.

EFTA’s full report of the third round of negotiations is available here. 

Delegations agreed to hold the next round in April 2023.

Economic relations between the EFTA States and Thailand

Bilateral EFTA–Thailand merchandise trade reached more than USD 2.82 billion in 2021, and preliminary data for 2022 indicates an increase of 14% in bilateral trade in the last year. According to the 2022 data, both export and import flows between EFTA States and Thailand increased in the last 12 months. In 2021, EFTA’s main exports to Thailand were fish and crustaceans such as salmon and mackerel, pharmaceutical products, and clocks and watches. These products will remain the main exported goods to Thailand in 2022. In 2021, imports from Thailand consisted mainly of iron and steel parts for large infrastructures, consumer electronics, parts for the watchmaking industry and vehicles. Apart from iron and steel parts, imports of all these goods from Thailand to EFTA States have intensified in 2022.

Read more about merchandise trade between EFTA and Thailand here (annual data available until 2021).