Endnotes

¹See Kawai and Wignaraja (2009a) for a summary of the FTA “noodle bowl” phenomenon.

²See Appendix 1 [ PDF 12.5KB | 1 page ] for a background of Thailand's trade policies and Appendix 2 [ PDF 60.2KB | 2 page ] for trade performance.

³ITA members also include Australia, the EU, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, the PRC, Singapore, and the US. As an ITA member, Thailand pledged to reduce tariffs imposed on electronic products to other ITA members to zero within a designated period (tariffs of three-fourths of tariff lines were reduced to zero in 2000, and tariffs of the other lines were reduced to zero in 2003).

⁵For a selection, see Kohpaiboon and Jongwanich (2006), TDRI (2006), and Sally (2007).

⁶This indicates that the countries may have unilaterally reduced tariffs of electronics prior to FTAs. It should be noted that all countries except less developed ASEAN countries are members of the ITA. Thus, tariff margins in those corresponding FTAs are low.

⁷ASEAN-5 consists of Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

⁸Giant firms have over 1,000 employees, large firms have 101 to 1,000, and SMEs have 100 or fewer.

⁹In this study, a firm is classified as a foreign firm if the share of foreign equity is more than 10% (UNCTAD definition). The pattern of FTAs by sector and ownership is as follows: 31 domestic and 3 foreign firms from textiles/garments selected the US-Thailand FTA; 3 domestic and 18 foreign firms from electronics, and 5 domestic and 16 foreign firms from auto/auto parts indicated the Japan-Thailand EPA to be their most important FTA.

¹⁰Firms were allowed to provide multiple answers.

¹¹For the purpose of this study, firm size is defined as follows: SME (1-100 employees), large firm (101 to 1,000 employees), and giant firm (more than 1,000 employees).

¹²Online information on FTAs, consultation workshops on FTAs, training, computerized software to calculate value added, quality and standard checks, and support for upgrading technology to meet FTA standards, are among the services provided by the government. Meanwhile, business associations issue the Certificate of Origin to their members and provide venues for discussions on provisions of relevant FTAs.

Download this Paper [ PDF 444.7KB| 34 pages ].

Comment(s)

There are [0] comment(s) for this entry. Post a comment.