The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is urging the Thai government to implement trade facilitation agreements (TFAs) and improve access to trade finance to revive declining exports.
Secretary-general John Danilovich said TFAs would encourage small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to trade offshore and give a major competitive boost to Thai firms in regional and global markets.
Danilovich: Firms facing bureaucracy
Founded in 1919, the ICC comprises 6 million companies, chambers of commerce and business associations in more than 130 countries and territories including Thailand.
Many Thai companies are discouraged from exporting or are uncompetitive due to customs costs, the ICC said.
Improving trade facilitation would make international trade quicker, easier and less costly.
"Smaller firms are adversely affected by customs bureaucracy," Mr Danilovich said. "That is why we think the implementation of TFAs is important, as it would help many companies to be able to trade internationally."
The ICC said improved custom procedures would lead to a huge increase in cross-border trade.
"Access to trade finance is the single greatest barrier to exporters. The shortage of finance is stifling opportunities for international trade that provide growth and job creation," Mr Danilovich said.
Access to trade finance is crucial for an economy such as Thailand that is heavily reliant on trade.
In 2013, the Asian Development Bank estimated the global trade finance shortfall had reached US$1.6 trillion including $425 billion in developing Asian countries.
Mr Danilovich said improving trade finance would require a government policy to address supply-side constraints in the financial sector, particularly the ability of banks to finance trade for SMEs.
He acknowledged it was difficult for SMEs in emerging economies that had been operating a certain way to understand the benefits of operating correctly.
"The benefits are important to SMEs because they cannot get finance or loans if they are not registered or don't pay taxes," he said.
"The sooner that everybody in banking and finance, government and SMEs cooperate in a correctly operated structure, the better it will be."
Asean should also work on harmonisation of regulations, Mr Danilovich said.