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  1. Negotiations

US-Thailand


The US and Thailand started negotiations on a comprehensive bilateral free trade agreement in June 2004.

Like other recent bilateral free trade agreements with the US, the US-Thailand FTA will cover investment, services, government procurement, intellectual property, as well as agriculture. Many expect it to be modeled on the US-Singapore FTA.

The negotiations have attracted strong opposition and concern among many Thai social movements, farmers to people with HIV/AIDS. A broad civil society coalition, FTA Watch, was formed at the outset to closely monitor the process from a public interest perspective. (Likewise, business interests set up their own US-Thai FTA Coalition.) Under the banner of "sovereignty not for sale!", key issues of popular concern include access to medicine, GMOs in agriculture and patents on life.

The last round of talks took place in Chiang Mai in January 2006 with 10,000 people protesting in the streets and disrupting the meeting. Negotiations have not resumed since.

last update: May 2012

Government to consider proposed points of opponents of Thai-US FTA
10-Jan-2006    
The Thai government will go ahead with its move to negotiate and conclude a bilateral free trade area (FTA) agreement with the United States, but will take proposed points raised by opponents of the planned Thai-US FTA into consideration, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Tuesday.
FTA talks: Protesters storm trade negotations
10-Jan-2006    
Nearly 10,000 protesters yesterday broke through police barricades surrounding the Sheraton Hotel, where Thai and US negotiators were engaged in free-trade talks.
FTA talks advance; Kraisak may sue
10-Jan-2006    
Thai and US negotiators working on the two countries' bilateral Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement have reached a tentative agreement on tariff cuts for over 204 categories of industrial goods, a senior Thai official announced here on Tuesday.
Protesters break through police barricade at Thai-US trade talks
10-Jan-2006    
Some 6,000 protesters on Tuesday broke through a barricade around the hotel where Thai and US negotiators are holding free trade talks, police said.
Clashes briefly interrupt Thai-U.S. FTA talks in Chiang Mai
10-Jan-2006    
Small clashes between Thai police and demonstrators on Tuesday briefly interrupted the sixth round of negotiations on the proposed Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement between Thailand and the United States which ran into the second day in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, reported the Thai News Agency.
Activists want Bush to halt FTA
10-Jan-2006    
Pro-democracy groups will urge US President George W Bush to halt free-trade agreement talks with Thailand because Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has violated the Constitution by refusing to seek parliamentary approval for the deal, group leaders said yesterday.
Thousands resist pact with US
10-Jan-2006     Bangkok Post
Over 8,000 protesters from an alliance of 11 groups opposing the Thai-US free trade area (FTA) agreement took to the streets of this northern city yesterday to demand what they termed unfair trade negotiations be scrapped.
OPINION: It could be a matter of life and death
10-Jan-2006     Bangkok Post
Thailand should think carefully about surrendering its sovereign rights under the WTO -- and access to cheap medicine -- in exchange for an FTA with the United States
Government urged to build financial architecture before opening up FTA with US
9-Jan-2006    
The government should build a financial architecture before establishing a free trade area (FTA) between Thailand and the United States, according to leading financiers.
Thai-US FTA: Somkid aide assigned to trade talks
9-Jan-2006    
Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Somkid Jatusripitak has tightened his grip over the Thai-US FTA talks by assigning his right-hand man, Uttama Savanayana, to play a key role in the negotiations with the US team in Chiang Mai, a source said yesterday.

Referenced sites

Citizen's Trade Campaign: US-Thailand FTA

A US campaign website on the Thai-US FTA

FTA Watch

A coalition of activists, lawyers, NGOs, social movements and labour groups monitoring the US-Thailand FTA negotiations.