Many Thai industrial goods and some farm products will enjoy a windfall after the European Union revised its Autonomous Tariff Suspension list to cover 2,000 items in December last year.
Duangporn Rodphaya, director general of the Department of International Trade Promotion, said Council Regulation (EU) 2015/2449 scrapped import taxes for 110 more products, changed the details of 45 existing products and extended the privileges for 148 items. All in all, import taxes for 2,000 products are either exempted or lowered under the revised list.
Most of the tax-exempted items are industrial goods such as petrochemical and downstream products; textile; metals and metal products; machinery and electrical appliances; automotive parts and optical equipment.
Eligible farm products are vegetables and fruits, among others.
The exemption period for most products is three years — from Jan 1 this year to Dec 31, 2018.
The EU also issued Council Regulation (EU) 2015/2448 to revise the autonomous tariff quota for products made in the EU but failing to meet the demand of local industries such as some petrochemical products and plastics, metals and metal products and machinery and electrical appliances, Ms Duangporn said.