Five ambassadors from developed economies met at the US ambassador's residence in Bangkok last week to call for Thailand to undergo regulatory reform, which should ease doing business, in addition to allowing fast-track access for essential business travel as the US thrashes out its political turmoil.
The meeting included ambassadors from the US, the UK, Germany, Japan and Australia, who called on Thailand to follow through with its regulatory guillotine to cut burdensome regulations and ease skilled foreign labour restrictions.
The Japanese ambassador called on Thailand to adopt fast-track entry procedures for business people that Japan has already established are from low-risk countries, such as South Korea and Vietnam.
"Among the 6,000 Japanese companies active in Thailand, there are chief executives that want to come to Thailand and some factories that require special engineers to come in to maintain production lines, or install new machinery," said Japanese ambassador to Thailand Kazuya Nashida.
"A fast track could be conducted in a very restricted manner under which visitors from Japan would not interact with the general public."
Thailand is ranked 21 among 190 nations on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index, having jumped up six spots from its 2019 ranking.
AWAITING RESOLUTION
Undergirding the talks on reform was the ongoing political chaos in the US. President Donald Trump declared himself the winner of November's election, despite losing at the ballot box to Joe Biden, with world leaders having already congratulated the former vice-president on his victory.
Over the past four years under President Trump, the US has increased trade restrictions on Thailand, taking over US$1 billion worth of Thai products off its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) tariff exemption list as a means of pressuring Thailand to buy more US pork products, which contain chemicals that are banned in Thailand.
As the president-elect of the US, Mr Biden's trade policies could have profound implications in Thailand and Asia, perhaps pulling back on Mr Trump's trade war against China and policies pushing balancing trade deficits with its trading partners.
For the first nine months of 2020, Thai exports to the US increased 7.4% year-on-year to $25.4 billion, while US exports to Thailand fell 8.2% to $12.2 billion. The US is Thailand's largest export market.
The US ambassador to Thailand Michael DeSombre declined to comment on whether the embassy was preparing for a new administration.
"The election hasn't been certified so I can't comment due to the restrictions of the Hatch Act," he said at the event, where reporters were urged not to ask questions about topics unrelated to the meeting's theme.
The Hatch Act bars executive branch civil service employees from engaging in political activity, however the law did not prevent Mr DeSombre's boss, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, from saying the State Department is preparing for a "smooth transition to a second Trump administration" at a press event last week in Washington, DC. This comes amid reports the Thai Foreign Ministry is preparing to open up talks with an incoming Biden administration.
Mr DeSombre was appointed ambassador as a political appointee, as opposed to a career government official, which means he will likely resign when a new administration enters the White House.
REAP MORE BENEFITS
Many of the envoys encouraged Thailand to open up to business to reap the benefits of its fast-growing neighbour, Vietnam, which has a flourishing free market while being ruled by a communist regime.
Mr Nashida encouraged Thailand to adopt both a fast-track business traveller programme and join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership along with Vietnam -- a free-trade agreement (FTA) the US government once championed, but then withdrew from negotiations under Mr Trump.
The UK's ambassador to Thailand, Brian John Davidson, said Thailand should adopt the free trade policies of Vietnam to compete for more foreign direct investment.
"While I certainly know that Thailand is a great place to do business, I know many UK businesses are looking at regional competitors such as Vietnam, which are capturing big flows of foreign investment," he said.
"My job is to help Thailand do more to attract that investment here."
Vietnam also has a FTA with the EU, while Thailand began FTA negotiations with the EU before 2014, but had to stop after the EU cut off diplomatic relations with Thailand following the latest military coup.
"At the moment there are ongoing discussions between the EU and Thailand to see what the obstacles are and what would be the positions for negotiations of a FTA," said German ambassador Georg Schmidt.
"I can only say it would help a lot by giving Thai companies much clearer access and German companies a much clearer set of rules. We mentioned before there is competition and Vietnam does have a FTA, so it makes it easy for many companies to know what the trading environment is, and it's a more favourable trading environment."
SIMPLIFY REQUIREMENTS
Thailand has a variety of laws restricting what jobs foreigners are allowed to do in the country, and the envoys requested the country simplify the requirements on skilled foreign labour to develop certain sectors in Thailand with the implicit promise that such jobs would eventually be turned over to Thais once the workforce is properly trained.
Mr DeSombre cited a Dow Chemical and Siam Cement Group joint venture plant.
When it began, over 30% of its employees were expats, while today it only has one expat employee after Thais were trained over the years to meet the operational needs of the plant.
"We encourage Thailand to open up to foreign skilled labour in general, not only through various exemptions, but also to benefit Thais," he said.
"This will make it easier for advanced manufacturing to establish plants here that will ultimately train the next generation of Thai workers."