Thailand to seek expanding regional cooperation during ASEAN chairmanship

BANGKOK, October 29 (TNA) - Thailand's alternate chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2019 is a good opportunity for the Kingdom to seek expanding cooperation with other countries in the region and in the world community. Auramon Supthaweethum, Director-General of the Department of Trade Negotiations, under the Thai Ministry of Commerce, voiced the positive prospect on October 28, assessing that Thailand and potential products should be more realized regionally and globally during the upcoming ASEAN chairmanship, after Singapore in 2018. "Regional forums to be hosted by Thailand during next year's ASEAN chairmanship should be platforms where the Thai Kingdom would seek expanding cooperation regionally and internationally and participating countries could explore potential of the Thai economy, as well as Thai goods and services for their domestic markets, especially in new areas", Auramon told journalists. The senior official acknowledged that Thailand's trade with other ASEAN member countries, in particular, has kept expanding since the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) Agreement, the country's first-ever FTA, was established in 1993. The senior official stated that Thailand's trade with other ASEAN member countries totaled about 85.13 billion US dollars during the first nine months of this year, a 14.7 per cent year-on-year increase, with the country's exports and imports during the period recorded at about 51.04 billion US dollars and 34.09 billion US dollars respectively. According to the senior official, the 10-member ASEAN bloc has become Thailand's largest trading partner, followed by China and Japan, with the country's proportion of external trade with them accounting for 22.6 per cent, 15.7 per cent and 11.8 per cent respectively out of the Kingdom's total external trade value. The senior official said Thailand's exports and imports to other ASEAN member countries under AFTA during the first eight months of this year were slated at about 17.85 billion US dollars, or about 39.2 per cent of the country's total exports, and about 6.24 billion US dollars, or about 20.5 per cent of the country's total imports, with major Thai exports to the ASEAN Community (AC) including automobiles and parts, refined fuel, plastic pellets and chemical products, while major imports, on the other hand, including crude oil, computer sets and accessories, chemical products and natural gas. ASEAN member countries include Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam, with the first six ones have cut their import tariffs of 98-99 per cent of items of products to zero per cent since 2010 and the remaining four new member countries since the beginning of this year. (TNA)