ISDS Case Map
Thailand
Thailand stands to lose even more valuable genetic resources if the country signs the Free Trade Area agreement with the United States in its present form. The FTA would allow the US easier access to Thailand's genetic resources, said Tewolde Berhan, an Ethiopian expert on biodiversity.
An activist group monitoring the Free Trade Area agreements between Thailand and other countries has urged the Government to stop negotiating now and give up plans to sign FTA accords with Japan and the United States.
New stringent drug patent and marketing rules being negotiated in a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the US and Thailand would limit competition and reduce access to affordable medicines in Thailand.
FTA Watch, a Thai civic group campaigning against free trade pacts, demanded an amendment to article 224 of Thailand's constitution to clearly state that any bilateral trade deals be subject to parliament's endorsement without conditions.
Cheaper products from North Korea's Kaesong special economic zone, which is a part of the proposed Asean-South Korean free trade agreement, may flood into Thailand and hurt local producers, according to executives of the Board of Trade.
American businesses have offered help in lobbying the US Congress to allow talks on the Thai-US free-trade agreement to move forward, according to the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
Under global trading rules, the inventors of medicines ordinarily enjoy the right to a 20-year monopoly on their inventions. But five years ago, the United States joined 141 other countries to sign the Doha Declaration, confirming the right of poor countries to break drug patents and produce cheap generic drugs in the event of contagions like HIV.
Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Somkid Jatusripitak on Monday revealed that he had instructed postponement of negotiations for the proposed free trade area (FTA) agreement between the United States and Thailand until the new government is formed.
Thailand's National Economic and Social Advisory Council has urged the government to delay free trade negotiations with the US on financial services and take intellectual property rights and agriculture liberalisation off the agenda.
A failure to manage trade liberalisation and agricultural policy could make the financial plight of Thai farmers worse, warns Prapat Panyachatraksa, a former agriculture minister.
