BANGKOK: The Thai cabinet will scrutinise the impact study on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and decide whether to ratify the trade pact.
Thai Trade Negotiations Department director-general Auramon Supthaweethum said the department has submitted the impact study to the International Economy Policy Committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak.
“The Commerce Ministry will table the impact study report to the cabinet (for scrutiny) before April.
“If it is approved (for ratification) by the cabinet, we will set up a negotiation team,” she told a press conference here today.
The CPTPP has been renamed from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) after US President Donald Trump signed an order withdrawing from it in January 2017.
The CPTPP has been operative since Dec 3, 2018, in Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam.
Only Brunei, Chile, Peru and Malaysia have yet to ratify the trade pact.
The CPTPP is a trade agreement that has potential access to a region of over 500 million consumers with a combined gross domestic product of US$10 tril (RM41.38 tril). – Feb 134, 2020, Bernama
