JSCCIB foresees national benefits from Thailand's joining in CPTPP

BANGKOK, May 7 (TNA) - The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB), comprising of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), the Board of Trade of Thailand (BTT) and the Thai Bankers' Association, foresees national benefits from the Thai Kingdom's joining in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). FTI Chairman Supant Mongkolsuthee told journalists on Monday that a recent JSCCIB meeting discussed, among other issues, impacts from Thailand's participation in the CPTPP and initially agreed that the Thai Kingdom's admission to the CPTPP should bring about national benefits. The FTI chief said JSCCIB, thus, proposed that the government speed up its study on pros and cons of Thailand's participation in the CPTPP to be concluded by July 2018 to be timely for Bangkok's admission to the new regional trade bloc. The FTI chief pointed out that issues not yet agreed by Thailand, including patents, have already been withdrawn from the CPTPP, which is a regional free trade agreement (FTA) now comprising 11 countries in Asia and the Pacific including New Zealand, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, following the United States' withdrawal last year from its original framework of FTA, named the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). (TNA)