Can anyone outline the benefits and rights that come with WTO free trade agreements? As I understand Australia, Japan and the United States have a trade agreement with Thailand.  Thanks in advance

Are you asking about individuals or for companies.

Each agreement is different.

Both Individual and Companies.  (Seting up a regional representative office) under the terms of APEC

 

 

Free trade agreements - FTA’s - basically provide for a reciprocal preferential tariff treatment upon importation of goods originating in the relevant partner country. ‘Originating’ is a key word here: each and every FTA contains Rules of Origin, the criteria to establish whether a product is originating or not. These often complicated criteria are a substantial part of the negotiation process. The FTA will also prescribe the way the relevant origin of a product must be proven.

 

Edited January 30, 20197 yr by damascase

I am aware of legislation. I am seeking practical experience/limitations.  Thailand will host APEC in 2022

 

Edited January 30, 20197 yr by OffshoreMig
Update

More about business than visas. Moved to the business forum.

No such thing as WTO free trade agreements. All the WTO does is sets out a set of rules by which countries can conduct trade. It doesn’t have to be free, just non-discriminatory.

 

As for the aforementioned ‘free trade agreements’, most of them are hardly free. They just provide a little bit more benefit to the signatories. Even when they do effectively lower tariffs, non-tariff barriers can be put into place (think quarantine rules, replacing tariffs with other taxes). Services are generally not covered, or restrictively covered. Eg. Australian banks can set up in Thailand but the capital requirements make it basically not worth doing.

 

Don’t even talk about personal services. Foreign engineers and doctors etc have to re-qualify, if they are allowed to practice as foreigners at all. 

 

The gold standards of proper free trade agreements are few. The EU being the major one, and on a much smaller scale, the Common Economic Relations pact (CER) between Australia and New Zealand. 

Edited January 30, 20197 yr by samran

39 minutes ago, OffshoreMig said:

Both Individual and Companies.  (Seting up a regional representative office) under the terms of APEC

 

 

There is no APEC framework. 

 

Setting uo rep offices are done under local BOI or standard rules. 

There is.  Have you read the Trade agreement.

 

2 hours ago, OffshoreMig said:

There is.  Have you read the Trade agreement.

 

Which particular trade agreement are you referring to?

which one have you read and are experienced with?

26 minutes ago, OffshoreMig said:

which one have you read and are experienced with?

YOU are asking for information here, so perhaps you provide some more information to enable people to help you out?

Edited January 30, 20197 yr by damascase
Typo

There are three that I am interested in Australia Japan and the US. 

5 hours ago, OffshoreMig said:

There are three that I am interested in Australia Japan and the US. 

Thailand doesn’t have an FTA with the US. It does with Australia and Japan, the texts of which are freely available online. 

I have read them. Do you have any experinece with them?  I am after issue to put o an agenda for discussion at a forthcoming conference.

Here is a link to the US trade agreement framework..

https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2017/april/united-states-and-thailand-discuss