CHIANG MAI, 5 August 2011 – The EU is set to impose new rules of origin on its generalized system of preferences (GSP) in 2014 while four categories of Thai export products could lose their privileges to tariff reduction.
In cooperation with the EU Delegation to Thailand, the Department of Foreign Trade (DFT) today opened a seminar under the title ‘The New EU-GSP Rules of Origin: Challenges and Opportunities for Thai Exporters’ at Le Meridien Hotel Chiang Mai. The objective was to give the Thai business sector, civil society organizations and public and private entrepreneurs necessary details on the new GSP rules of origin, which will be adopted by the EU in 2014.
According to DFT Deputy Director-General Surasak Riangkrua, the new regulations will require all products arriving in the EU to be accompanied with certificates of origin and will also place a focus on goods imported from developing nations. As a consequence, the number of countries receiving tax cut privileges will be reduced from 176 to 80. Four types of Thai products are also expected to be excluded from the GSP, consisting of meat, sugar and sweets, gems and transport vehicles.
The EU is the number two export market for Thailand after ASEAN, accounting for 11 percent of the total export value. In 2010, Thailand’s export to and import from the EU were worth 21 billion USD and 14 billion USD respectively.
