BANGKOK, Jan 13: The latest round of free trade talks between Thailand and the United States, briefly halted by anti-free trade rallies, ended on Friday agreeing to waive duties on farm and industrial goods, trade negotiators said.
But controversial issues such as intellectual property and drug patents, liberalization of financial services and telecoms were far from being settled, they said.
“We have made progress in many chapters, but still have much work ahead,” US chief trade negotiator Barbara Weisel told a news conference in Bangkok, where anti-free trade activists waved placards against the deal. Ms Weisel urged both sides to work harder to wrap up the talks in a few months.
“While the United States believes that this goal is achievable, it will require both sides to redouble their efforts and to consider creative solutions to the remaining issues,” she said.
The United States is Thailand’s largest trade partner. Thai exports were worth $15 billion in 2004 and imports $7.2 billion.
Washington proposed to waive tariffs on 74 per cent of 10,500 Thai industrial goods, ranging from home appliances to jewellery, and estimated to be worth $12.8 billion, a statement by Thai negotiators said.
In return, Thailand would waive tariffs on 71pc of US goods, estimated to be worth $5 billion.
Politically sensitive items such meat, grains, milk and other dairy products would be imported under a quota system, the statement said.
Washington also proposed to allow Thai firms to bid for US government contracts, estimated to be worth $300 billion a year.
Critics say US proposals on protecting patents held by US pharmaceutical firms are aimed at extending the protection for longer than the 20 years provided for by the World Trade Organization rules, threatening Thailand’s generic drug industry.
But Ms Weisel said this was not true. “The claims by some groups that the FTA will cause drug prices to rise by whole multiples of their current price is based on a lack of understanding of the US proposal, runs counter to the experiences of our other FTA partners, and amounts to scaremongering,” she said.
Thai chief negotiator Nitya Pibulsonggram said both sides had exchanged views on preliminary proposals on drug patents, financial and telecoms services.
“Each party agreed to have more discussion of these issues at the next round of talks,” he said.
Ms Weisel said the US Congress would have to approve the agreements reached in Chiang Mai. The two sides said no date had been set for the next round of negotiations.—Reuters