Recently, the European Commission reminded Thai exporters that starting from January 1, 2015, the preferential treatment of Thai exports to the EU under the EU Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) will be cancelled. Therefore, products exported to the EU by the end of this year must obtain origin certification and other document certifications before December 31, 2014, and pass customs inspection procedures. Otherwise, they will no longer be able to enjoy the EU GSP benefits.
In fact, the EU has already begun to consider reducing the number of countries that grant Generalized System of Preferences (GPS) treatment from 176 to 80. At the beginning of 2014, 50 types of Thai goods exported to the EU will lose their Generalized System of Preferences (GPS) treatment, and 723 types of goods will face the same problem in 2015. These commodities mainly include footwear, clothing, plastic products, seafood, tropical fruits, bicycles, palm oil and rubber products.
In addition, the EU is launching free trade agreement negotiations with Malaysia, and the free trade agreement negotiations with Singapore are about to end. The EU will then continue to hold free trade agreement talks with Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia. Thailand hopes to start and complete free trade agreement negotiations with the EU as soon as possible, and also hopes that the EU will extend the period of GSP treatment for the above-mentioned goods before reaching an agreement.
