EFTA trade talks with Thailand resumes

News brief Norway, Iceland in Free Trade Agreement talks with Thailand

From left to right: Mr Sveinung Røren - Norway, Mr Sveinn K. Einarsson - Iceland, Mr Markus Schlagenhof - Switzerland (EFTA Spokesperson), Mr Duangarthit Nidhi-U-Tai, Head of the Thai delegation, Ms Krisztina Bende - EFTA Secretariat, Mr Patrick Ritter - Liechtenstein.

The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok reported on 24 June 2022, that the four EFTA (European Free Trade Association) countries being Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Iceland are now back negotiating a free trade agreement with Thailand.

“Negotiations on the deal were launched earlier this week [on 21 June] in Iceland, with representatives from both the EFTA countries and Thailand present,” the embassy wrote.

“From the Norwegian side, Norway’s ambassador to Thailand Kjersti Rødsmoen, as well as Janicke Andreassen and Erling Rimestad from the Ministry of Industry and Fisheries participated.

“The work to get an agreement in place has been going on for several years, and when it is finished, it will become a milestone in ThaiNorwegian trade history.”

This is to be Thailand’s first free trade agreement with European countries and negotiations have already started in Bangkok. Following the resumption of negotiations on 21 June in Borgarnes in Iceland, the first round of negotiations took place on 28 to 30 June in Bangkok, Thailand. The delegates agreed to hold the next round of talks in Geneva in October 2022.

It is projected that Thai exports to EFTA would increase by 38 percent to 262 million USD, while imports from EFTA would increase by 14.8 percent to 210 million USD.

EFTA was the 17th largest trade partner of Thailand in 2021, wth two-way trade reaching 7.5 billion USD, accounting for 1.29 percent of the Southeast Asian nation’s total trade value.