Bangkok (VNA) - Thailand is considering a return to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) as it pushes to lock in a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), amid rising protectionism and mounting challenges facing the global trading system.
Speaking at the Nikkei Forum on the Future of Asia in Tokyo on June 10, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said the CPTPP groups heavyweight economies and staying on the outside risks leaving Thailand on the wrong side of opportunity, Nikkei Asia reported. The accession review, he said, should run in parallel with the EU negotiations rather than wait on their outcome.
The multilateral trading system is no longer functioning as it once did as major economies increasingly lean on protectionist measures and retaliatory tariffs. In such context, maintaining and advancing regional free trade pacts is essential to keeping global trade expansion alive, he added.
Thailand is now in the final stages of negotiating an FTA with the EU. It previously explored joining the CPTPP around 2020, but the discussions stalled under domestic opposition and the overriding need to confront the COVID-19 pandemic./.
