Thailand has teamed up with the EU to push the World Trade Organization (WTO) into greater engagement for handling protectionist and retaliatory issues to curb a possible trade war.
Auramon Supthaweethum, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, said the latest meeting of the Thai-EU trade and investment working panel held on July 2-3 in Bangkok found both sides agreeing to ask the WTO to play a more active role in promoting the multilateral trade system.
Both will call on WTO members to work together to maintain the validity and authority of the organisation, strengthen its policy review and negotiation functions, as well as the dispute settlement mechanism, and stay away from the use of unilateral trade measures.
"The WTO's priority is to speed up the appointment of three vacant seats on its appellate body as soon as possible, as a full-member body is instrumental in tackling international trade disputes," she said.
The appellate body is a seven-member group that functions as the WTO's highest adjudicator. Each member serves a four-year term, with the possibility of a one-time renewal.
The group has not been able to work at full capacity for over a year, given that three seats are vacant.
Experts warn that without a prompt selection process, the court will not have enough judges to sign off on any appellate body rulings after December 2019.
Under WTO rules, a minimum of three judges must sign off on any ruling.
In a related development, Mrs Auramon said Thailand and the EU have also discussed how to attain progress in the Doha Round negotiations, especially on fisheries subsidy rules, the role and the participation of small and medium-scale enterprises in world trade and e-commerce.
Thailand also has concerns about the EU's trade measures to phase out food-based biofuels like palm oil by 2030, data privacy laws and a digital services tax, saying such measures may affect the Thai private sector's dealings with the EU.
The Commerce Ministry reports the EU is Thailand's third-largest trade partner, with two-way trade totalling US$44.3 billion (1.47 trillion baht) in 2017, up 10.4% from 2016.
Thai exports to EU totalled $23.7 billion last year, an increase of 7.5%, with imports worth $20.60 billion, up 13.8% year-on-year from 2016.
Key exports include computers and parts, automobiles, gems and jewellery, electrical circuits, rubber product, air-conditioners and processed chicken.
In 2017, EU investment in Thailand totalled $6.57 billion and Thai investment in the EU amounted to $11.6 billion.
Thailand is pursuing the resumption of Thai-EU free trade agreement (FTA) talks at ministerial levels, after the bloc late last year agreed to resume political contact "at all levels".
Negotiations for a Thai-EU FTA were formally launched on March 6, 2013.
The goal was to form a comprehensive FTA covering tariffs, non-tariff barriers and other trade-related issues such as services, investment, procurement, intellectual property, regulatory issues, competition and sustainable development.
But the talks were suspended after the military coup on May 22, 2014.
In June 2015, the EU said it would delay signing an agreement on closer economic and political ties and demanded Thailand's swift return to democracy.
Last December, the bloc said it had agreed to resume political contact at all levels with Thailand.
The bloc said developments in Thailand, including the adoption of a new constitution and a pledge by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to hold elections, made the resumption of ties "appropriate".
But the EU repeated its call for the restoration of full democracy and said it was still concerned about the harassment of human rights activists and the curtailment of free speech.