After the recent visit to the UK, Deputy Commerce Minister Suvit Maesincee said that Thailand and the United Kingdom had committed to ensuring bilateral trade growth to ensure Brexit would not affect trade and economic cooperation.

“The FTA should help promote trade and investment growth between the two sides though the UK will exit the EU. The UK is one of our major export markets among EU countries. Thailand will try to ensure market access under the bilateral trade pact with the UK after its exit from the European Union,” Suvit said.

Thailand and the UK have also agreed to establish the Thai-UK Business Leadership Council, to boost cooperation between private enterprises and provide suggestions to the governments in improving the business environment and facilitating trade and investment growth for both sides.

The ceremony to set up the council was witnessed by UK Rolls Royce’s International Advisory Board and PTT Plc chief executive officer Tevin Vongvanich. Thai and UK business people will forge closer cooperation in various sectors under the council platform. Areas of cooperation include creative economy, technology transfer and innovation, and to find trade promotion measures between the two countries.

The first meeting of the council will be hosted by Thailand in September or October this year.

Thailand has also encouraged Rolls Royce to move its investment to Thailand from Singapore as Thailand has a policy to support the aviation industry, which is one of the targeted industries under the Thailand 4.0 Model to promote high-technology industries.

With the impact from the Brexit weakening the pound sterling, Thai goods have become more expensive. The Thai government will try to promote Thai goods and their image among British consumers so they will continue to buy the products despite prices going up by about 15 per cent, Suvit added.

According to the ministry, average two-way trade was worth US$3.66 billion (Bt128 billion). The UK is Thailand’s second-largest trading partner among EU members and 19th in the world market. In the first five months of this year, two-way trade was worth $2.24 billion, with exports from Thailand valued at $1.49 billion.