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PRESS/TPRB/291 
26 November 2007 
 
(07-5168) 
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: THAILAND 
Strong growth, but restoring investor confidence is a key 
challenge 
By and large, Thailand's economic fundamentals remain good.  Since its previous Trade Policy 
Review in 2003, despite a series of difficult circumstances, Thailand's real GDP has grown at an average annual rate of 5.7%, largely due to strong growth in exports and domestic consumption, 
according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of Thailand.  
Nevertheless, a confluence of factors, including increasingly constrained production capacity, has led to a recent slowdown in real GDP growth.   
 
The report notes that a key challenge for Thailand’s future economic performance is the Government’s ability to restore private investor co nfidence and to proceed with  pending structural 
reforms, including stalled privatizations, that would help improve the country’s competitiveness. 
 Further trade openness would support Thailand's development plans.  To raise the predictability of 
the trade regime, the report underlines inter alia   the need for Thailand to expand its tariff 
bindings and to simplify its relatively complex tariff regime.  The Services sector, which makes up a large part of the Thai economy, has benefited so far from liberalization but would grow further if 
multilateral commitments under the GATS were expanded, according to the report. 
 The WTO Secretariat report, along with a policy stat ement by the Government of Thailand, will be 
the basis for the fifth TPR of Thailand by the Trad e Policy Review Body of the WTO on 26 and 28 of 
November 2007.  
The following documents are available in MS Wo rd format on the WTO web-site. They can be 
downloaded at http://www.wto.org/english/ tratop_e/tpr_e/tp291_e.htm  
 
• Secretariat reports 
> Contents and summary observations  > Economic environment  
> Trade and investment regimes  
> Trade policies and practices by measure  > Trade policies by sector  
> Appendix tables  PRESS/TPRB/291 
Page 2 of 2 
 
 • Report by the Government of Thailand 
• Chairperson’s concluding remarks  
• Minutes of the meeting (available appr oximately six weeks after the meeting). 
Note 
Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO Agreement, in which member 
countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant 
developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each 
review, two documents are prepared: a policy stat ement by the government of the member under 
review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in  the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These 
documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.  
 Print copies of the TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William 
Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop at 
https://secure.vtx.ch/shop/boutiques/wto_index_boutique.html  or follow this path :  
www.wto.org >resources > publications > trade policy reviews  
 
The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press , 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States 
Next reviews: 
Turkey: 10 and 12 of December 2007 
Pakistan: 16 and 18 of January 2008 
Ghana: 28 and 30 of January 2008 
 For a full list of previous trade policy reviews and the full programme of future reviews go to 
http://www.wto.org/english/trat op_e/tpr_e/tpr_ e.htm#reviews 
or follow this path : www.wto.org > trade topics > trade policy reviews  
 
 
END