Thailand aiming to expand huge China market at Asean FTA meet
Thailand will seek to boost trade with the regional superpower when it hosts the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement Joint Committee (ACFTA-JC) in April, the Department of Trade Negotiations said on Sunday.
It will be the first meeting since the two sides agreed to upgrade the ACFTA at the 25th Asean-China Summit in November last year.
The ACFTA-JC hopes to finalise the framework of trade negotiations between Asean and China and other key details within 2024, the department said.
The framework will cover areas including the digital economy, green economy, supply chain connectivity, competition, consumer protection, and MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises).
The department said China is now Asean’s largest trade partner, with trade volume in three quarters of 2022 expanding 9.68% year on year to US$530.32 billion. Asean’s exports to China amounted to $210.92 billion while its imports from China were worth $319.39 billion.
Meanwhile Thailand’s trade with China last year expanded by 1.53% year on year to US$105.40 or 3.55 trillion baht, with $34.38 billion (1.16 trillion baht) worth of exports and $71.01 billion (2.39 trillion baht) in imports.
Thailand’s key exports to China are fresh fruits, rubber, plastic beads, tapioca, computer components and chemicals. Its key imports from China are electrical machinery and components, electrical appliances, computers and components.
