I note we have been able to buy Carlsberg (brewed in Vietnam) and Beer Lao (brewed in Laos) at reasonable prices for the last 2 or 3 years or so.

I believe this is due to much reduced import tariffs within ASEAN for alcoholic drinks.

Why are the far wider range of Malaysian-brewed beers not available in Thailand at all? Similarly, Indonesian beers? Cambodian beers?

Is this a cartel-type agreement across ASEAN? Is it a blocking policy by the Thai Beverage / Boonrawd powerful political lobby? Is it simply considered not worth it by the foreign brewers? Or, finally is it because they are the same brewers but just differently incorporated across South East Asian countries?

In Phuket, Beer Lao had a hard time of it because of distributor pressure.

Basically, if you sell, I won't sell you Singh, etc...

Duty rates haven't come down in ASEAN yet.

If Thailand does reduce import traffics on alcoholic drinks they will just up the excise tax to offset.