BANGKOK, 24 June 2012 – Thailand will decrease the import duty for more than 140 more items of Japanese auto parts to 0% with retroactive effect from 1 April 2012. The tariff cut is expected to help speed up the recovery of the Thai automotive industry hard hit by the floods crisis last year.
Director-General of the Department of Trade Negotiations Srirat Ratthapana said the Ministry of Finance had issued an announcement on the tax reduction for auto parts from Japan under the Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (JTEPA). The auto parts’ import duty of 10-20% will be reduced to 0%.
The director-general said Thailand hoped that the tax cut would help save the cost of production for Thai entrepreneurs and contribute to the country’s goal to be a hub of automobile production in ASEAN. The duty reduction would also help boost export volume of the flood-affected industries.
Thailand’s imports of auto parts over the past three years came mostly from Japan, with the average import value of more than three billion USD a year. Japan’s long investment in Thai automotive and auto parts industries has made Thailand one of the most important automobile production bases in Southeast Asia.
