The Commerce Ministry has announced a list of 1,230 products that can be used to make weapons and will be subject to special control measures.
Export controls on these "dual-use items" (DUIs) will apply from Jan 1, 2018, Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said on Friday.
The cabinet tasked the ministry to come up with measures to ensure these controls would meet international trade standards, she said.
Under the measures, companies wishing to export these products must register with authorities and seek export permission, Ms Apiradi said.
Apiradi: Studying negative impacts
Goods that will be subject to the new DUI control measures include electronics, electrical appliances, computers, plastic, moulded rubber, mechanical machines and certain manufactured materials.
These include: carbon fibres normally used in producing sports equipment like tennis racquets, which can be turned into missile components; phosphorus compounds normally used for fertilisers, which can be used in bombs; and ricin normally used in bio-diesel production, which can be used to produce biological weapons.
Also on the list: laser equipment normally used for material cutting, which can be used to enrich uranium; accelerometers used for vehicle airbag systems, which can also be used in cruise missile systems; and detonators used for mining operation, which can be used in bombs.
Maraging steel used to produce golf club heads is also classified as a DUI as it can be used to enrich uranium, Ms Apiradi said.
The ministry is studying possible negative impacts of the DUI control measures on these products and how to help exporters of them cope, she said.
The measures that will make the controls meet international standards will prevent importers of these products from Thailand using the DUI issue as a trade barrier for Thai products.
The implementation of the measures conforms to the UN Security Council's Resolution 1540, Ms Apiradi said.
The resolution, introduced in 2004, established legally binding obligations on all UN member states to have and enforce appropriate and effective measures against the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, their delivery systems, including by establishing controls.
The Department of Foreign Trade, along with six other agencies, is heading the task of preparing for the implementation of the DUI export control measures when they start in 2018, she said.
The six organisations are the Defence Industry Department, the Department of Industrial Works, the Department of Medical Sciences, the Office of Atoms for Peace, the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, and the Customs Department. "Now that many other markets including US, Europe, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia already have a DUI management system in place, Thailand will lose its competitiveness if it doesn't have one," said the minister.
Meanwhile, Ms Apiradi said the US, in its latest annual review of its trade programme, the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), decided to keep GSP privileges for Thailand unchanged.
Some of the Thai products currently protected under the US GSP programme are fresh orchids, fresh durian, dried papaya, sun-dried tamarind, processed corn, fruits preserved in syrup, processed papayas, processed coconut, and ceramics, she said.