From left to right: Guy Parmelin, Federal Councillor, Switzerland, Pichai Naripthaphan, Minister of Commerce of Thailand, Cecilie Terese Myrseth, Minister of Trade and Industry of Norway, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand, Martin Eyjólfsson, Permanent Secretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iceland, ,Dominique Hasler, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education and Sport of Liechtenstein, Kurt Jäger, EFTA Secretary-General.
On 23 January 2025, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the Kingdom of Thailand signed a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on the margins of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The FTA was signed on behalf of the EFTA States by Martin Eyjólfsson, Permanent Secretary of State of Iceland; Dominique Hasler, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Education and Sport of Liechtenstein; Cecilie Myrseth, Minister of Trade and Industry of Norway; and Guy Parmelin, Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research of Switzerland; and for Thailand by Pichai Naripthaphan, Minister of Commerce.
The signing ceremony, which was hosted by Switzerland, was also attended by the Prime Minister of Thailand, Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
The negotiations towards an EFTA–Thailand FTA were launched by EFTA Ministers and Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister during EFTA’s Ministerial Meeting on 20 June 2022 in Borgarnes, Iceland. After ten rounds of negotiations in Bangkok, Geneva and Oslo, the negotiations were concluded on 29 November 2024.
The EFTA–Thailand FTA is a comprehensive and ambitious agreement that covers various areas including trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property rights, competition, government procurement and sustainable development. The agreement aims to enhance trade relations between the EFTA States and Thailand by eliminating or reducing customs duties, facilitating trade and promoting sustainable development. It also includes new provisions for small and medium-sized enterprises, cooperation and capacity building.
Over the past decade, trade between the EFTA States and Thailand has shown consistent growth. In 2023, bilateral merchandise trade surpassed EUR 3.2 billion, with Thailand enjoying a trade surplus of nearly EUR 400 million. Key exports from the EFTA States to Thailand include clocks and watches, fish and crustaceans, pharmaceutical products, electrical machinery and mechanical appliances. Thailand’s primary exports to the EFTA States comprise electrical machinery, mechanical appliances, clocks and watch parts, vehicles and iron structures.
