Thai government to encourage exporters to take advantage of free trade agreement (FTA) benefits

Well this certainly makes sense:

The plan was expected to encourage exporters to use FTA benefits, after it had been found local exporters had in fact been using very little of the privileges given under FTA accords over the past four to five years, said Ms. Chutima.

For example, Ms. Chutima noted, Thai exporters used about 10 per cent of the total privileges available under the Thailand-China FTA framework, which was not enough.

If Thai exporters used between 70 and 80 per cent of total privileges given under FTA accords Thailand had signed with other countries, it would be positive for Thailand’s exports sector, said Ms. Chutima.

Makes you wonder what’s been going the past 4-5 years that no one bothered to take notice and do something about it before. Granted they were under military rule for the past year plus, but even before that it’s too bad no one took notice. Then again, even in the U.S. I wouldn’t be surprised if some exporters or manufacturers weren’t aware of the benefits they had under FTA agreements implemented by the government.

Update: If you are a U.S. exporter or importer and want to learn more about U.S. FTAs, here’s a very useful website that gives you everything you need to know about FTAs: Tradeagreements.gov