TOKYO/BANGKOK: Under the Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (JTEPA) and Asean-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership (AJCEP) for about 6,000 product items, Thailand exports about US$6 billion (Bt206 billion) worth per annum to Japan. Only six Thai products worth about $17 million per annum have been exported to Japan under the GSP.
Apiradi said those six products would be affected if Japan cuts its GSP. They are sorbitol, roasted decaffeinated coffee beans, ethyl alcohol, certain types of plywood, laminated wood, and blockboard. Most of them have seen gradual tariff reductions under JTEPA and AJCEP.
Only sorbitol is excluded from the tariff cuts listed under these trade agreements.
Generally, GSP tariff privileges are granted to developing countries. However, as global economic and trade conditions have been changing, Japan between 2013 and 2015 re-examined its GSP policy for countries in the upper-middle-income group that account for more than 1 per cent of global export value.
Thailand has been categorised in the upper-middle-income group since 2011, and its exports amounted to 1.21 per cent of the global total in 2013, 1.20 per cent in 2014 and 1.29 per cent in 2015. Thus Japan is considering a GSP cut for Thailand from 2019 onward.
Apiradi said her ministry had assigned its departments of Foreign Trade and of Trade Negotiations to push for consideration of the six affected products in JTEPA’s general review this year so as to minimise the impact on exporters from Japan’s planned GSP cuts.
In other Commerce Ministry news, Apiradi said that to mark World Intellectual Property Day today, the ministry had set up a campaign to make business operators and the general public aware of the importance of copyrights.
The World Intellectual Property Organisation has set “Innovation – Improving Lives” as the theme for this year’s World IP Day.
Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property will hold a seminar at the IP IDE (Innovation-Driven Enterprise) Centre today on innovation to help the elderly live quality lives. The ministry also has activities planned to raise awareness on intellectual property rights today.
Apiradi reiterated that business operators should pay attention to research and development and register their intellectual properties to protect their inventions and innovations to expand their markets, and said the ministry was ready to provide support.
The ministry has reported that there were 7,511 cases of IP violations involving about 5.55 million items in 2016, and 1,439 cases with 471,596 items in January and February this year.
