Thailand to join 14th ATF-JCC Meeting in Lao PDR

BANGKOK, March 25 (TNA) - Thailand, through the Ministry of Commerce, will participate in the ASEAN Trade Facilitation Joint Consultative Committee (ATF-JCC) Meeting, the 14th of its kind, set to be held in neighboring Lao PDR early next month. As Thailand takes the role of the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2019, Auramon Supthaweethum, Director-General of the ministry's Department of Trade Negotiation, told journalists on March 24 that she will chair the 14th ATF-JCC Meeting in Vientiane during April 2-3, aimed to follow up the progress in the implementation of trade facilitation plans for this year by member countries in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Auramon said that the plans include those concerning fair and transparent non-tariff measures (NTMs), the follow-up and evaluation of ASEAN trade facilitation measures to comply with the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO-TFA) and the adoption of the ASEAN Time Released Study as a tool to measure the effectiveness and the efficiency of trade facilitations by member countries. Besides, the upcoming ATF-JCC Meeting will follow up the progress in the implementation of such regional trade facilitation links by member countries as the ASEAN Single Window (ASW), the ASEAN Trade Repository (ATR) and the ASEAN Single Window Self-Certification (ASWC). The senior Thai official stated that a meeting of the Joint Business Council (JBC), comprising of representatives of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC), the EU-ASEAN Business Council (EU-ABC) and the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC), will also be held, in parallel with the 14th ATF-JCC Meeting, to discuss and exchange opinions among the participants on practical trade facilitation measures and reduced trade transaction costs in order to further drive forward the ASEAN intra-regional trade with a well growth in the coming years. (TNA)