BANGKOK: The Thai-European Business Association has proposed to the government the possibility of providing an exemption on the import duty tax for test vehicles in order to encourage more foreign investment in automotive testing facilities in the Kingdom.
TEBA president Uli Kaiser and 12 other members of the association met with Industry Minister Atchaka Sibunruang and other representatives from the ministry and the Office of Industrial Economics yesterday.
They primary discussed six issues including accelerating the Asean Mutual Recognition Arrangement for automotive products to achieve a single regulatory regime.
Thailand signed on as a contracting party for the 1958 agreement but it has yet to be implemented.
It is hoped some of the following can be put under the one umbrella under the agreement to make it more well known: vehicle testing facilities; electric vehicles and quick-charging stations; automotive parts production for local content requirements; and the promotion of a dual education system in Thailand.
It’s also hoped a minimum-required manufacturing standard can be implemented under the Good Manufacturing Practice of Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme to enable contract manufacturing and greater penetration of the international export market and the legislating of tax breaks for pharmaceutical manufacturers.
“We had a very good exchange of dialogue with Dr Atchaka and the OIE and we brought up the issues surrounding standardisation and the lowering of technical barriers to trade and market access,” he said.
He added that those factors were the key constraints for export growth in the automotive and auto-parts industry.