EU, Thailand Kickstart Stalled Free Trade Talks

The EU on Wednesday said long delayed talks would resume on a free trade agreement with Thailand as Europe seeks to boost access to green technology to cut its carbon emissions.

The bloc and Thailand, Southeast Asia's second largest economy, launched negotiations in 2013 but discussions stalled in 2014 after a military coup.

The EU is pushing to develop better trade relations with a fast-growing region, especially in clean technology as the bloc races to meet climate targets by 2030.

Brussels already has trade agreements with Vietnam and Singapore. In September 2022, the bloc set an ambitious target to agree a free trade deal with Indonesia within two years.

Any deal with Thailand will focus on areas where the EU is "under-represented" including clean and renewable energies, electric vehicles, and critical goods like microchips, the European Commission said.

The commission, the EU's executive arm, is due to announce two landmark proposals for legislation focused on green tech and critical raw materials this week.

The aim was to hold the first round of talks with Thailand in the coming months, it said.

The announcement comes after the European Council, representing the 27 EU member states, in 2017 and 2019 recommended restarting talks after Thailand's "advances on the democratisation process", the commission said.

Trade in goods between the EU and Thailand was worth over 42 billion euros ($44.3 billion) in 2022.

There is exasperation among some member states at the slow pace of trade deals by the EU, but talks continue with many countries including Australia, Chile and India.