Thailand seeking free trade pact with US

IBD:
The floods hitting Thailand are tragic, and the U.S. has offered its aid. Thailand hasn't taken it up, but has sought a free-trade pact. That's where the U.S. can be most helpful.
Thailand is a longtime U.S. treaty ally that has developed its economy over the last decades through trade, not aid.
It's now got big trouble with the worst flooding in centuries. So far, 366 are dead, and a third of the nation is underwater.
Bangkok, the capital of 2.5 million that's responsible for 40% of Thailand's economic output, is in particularly dire straits.
Desperate officials are opening floodgates to keep the capital from being deluged by collapsing dikes. Meanwhile, the government has declared a five-day holiday to let those with jobs leave the city.
Small wonder then that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in Asia this week, "expressed serious concern about the flooding in Thailand" in a statement, and praised Thailand's quick response to its crisis. He also offered a U.S. aircraft carrier at Thailand's disposal.
Thailand said no thanks.
Panetta did the right thing, of course. But perhaps a better way to help Thailand rebuild would be to speed its entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a nine-nation, mutual free-trade treaty.
...
 TPP, now in its ninth round of talks, is the Obama administration's own multilateral free-trade treaty with Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Peru and Chile.
...
There is more.

Thailand could be an important trading partner.  It has been a good US ally since at least World War II.  After the war the US helped Thailand become a center for the silk trade replacing the Chicoms in that commodity.

Thailand was an important ally in the Vietnam war providing bases for aircraft used to patrol the Ho chi Minh trial and also serving as a base for some special ops troops operating along the trial.

Thailand currently has steep duties on some US goods, but there is a hunger for items like iPads and other tech goods.
 
 

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