Thailand approves RCEP pact
Bangkok (VNA) - Thailand has submitted to the ASEAN Secretariat its ratification for the
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade pact and reaffirmed
that the world's biggest free trade deal will come into force on January 1 next
year as scheduled, according to the Bangkok Post.
The Bangkok
Post quoted an unnamed source in the
Thai Commerce Ministry as saying that Thailand, through Commerce Minister Jurin
Laksanawisit, submitted the ratification for RCEP on Oct 28 to the ASEAN Secretariat,
ahead of the previous deadline set in November.
The Thai Parliament ratified the pact on February 9 this year. The agreement, signed by 15 countries last
November, will come into effect 60 days after it is ratified by at least six ASEAN
member nations and three other signatory countries.
Among the signatories, Singapore and China have completed
ratification procedures.
The RCEP groups the ten ASEAN member nations - Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam, as well as Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and the
Republic of Korea.
Five ASEAN member
countries - Singapore, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, have submitted
their ratification of the pact.
Trade
Negotiations Department's director-general Auramon Supthaweethum said Thailand
will benefit from RCEP in terms of a bigger market because RCEP is the world's
largest trading and investment market, comprising 15 countries with a
population of nearly 2.3 billion, with a total GDP of 28.5 trillion USD in 2020.
The RCEP trade volume tallied over 10.7 trillion USD or 30.3
percent of global trade last year./.