The European Union (EU) is ready to resume negotiations on its free trade agreement (FTA) with Thailand as soon as possible, senior officials have affirmed.

Illustrative image (Source: bangkokpost)

Director-General of the Department of European Affairs under the Thai Foreign Ministry Sasiwat Wongsinsawat and the EU's Deputy Managing Director for Asia and Pacific Department at the European External Action Service (EEAS) Paola Pampaloni recently co-chaired the 15^th Thailand-EU Senior Officials' Meeting via video conference.

This year's annual meeting discussed COVID-19 and its impact on the economy, as well as the political developments in Thailand, according to a statement released by the Department of European Affairs, with both parties also agreeing to strengthen ties by signing the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement by the end of next year.

The EU also confirmed its readiness to resume EU-Thailand FTA talks as soon as possible. Relevant agencies will discuss the details at a meeting of a committee on trade and investment in December.

At the same time, Thailand and the EU voiced a desire for close and tangible cooperation including in the fight against Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing via the ASEAN Network on Combating IUU Fishing, and by setting up a Thailand-EU Security Dialogue and promoting the protection of labourers via the Thai-EU Labour dialogue.

Moreover, the EU will discuss a voluntary agreement on combating illegal wood trading with the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade.

The EU is Thailand’s fifth largest trade partner, after ASEAN, China, Japan and the US. Two-way trade hit 44.5 billion USD in 2019, of which 23.58 billion USD came from Thailand’s exports. The deal, once taking into effect, is expected to help raise annual exports and imports by 3.4 percent each, and investment by 2.7 percent.

Source: VNA