Abstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to study the legal problems in the Cassava Trade Agreement between Thailand and the EC. The development of VER agreement, the history of cassava trade between Thailand and EC., the legal status of Thailand in the international trade forum and the appliance of GATT rules to the cassava trade negotiation with EC. are also studied in this thesis. The findings of this thesis are 1) VER Agreement made between Thailand and EC. is different to an VER under article 19, 6 and 28 of the GATT in that the agreement was made when Thailand was not the member of GATT. However, after Thailand became GATTs member, the agreement remains unchanged resulting in many legal problems at negotiation table. 2) Thailand has to adjust her internal law i.e. she has to issue rules and regulations to control the export of cassava products to EC. after VER Agreement was signed. 3) Quota Rents arising out of Agreement is the political-economic problem which warsens Thai position. 4) It is proposed that the VER Agreement should address the issues of Thailand as a Principal Supplier under article 28, Tariff and Cassava Pellets nomenclature.
When the Cassava Trade Agreement is still valid and has the tendency to extend its validity, Thailand should proceed the following: 1) In future, amend and extend the agreement by applying GATT article 28, 2) Auction the quota of cassava product export to make the quota distribution transparent. Quota auction will, also, reduce the problem of quota rents which is the political-economic question. 3) Set up special office responsible for international trade negotiation in order to manage conflict between different government agencies. 4) Negotiate to improve better VER Agreement by using cross-sectorial exchange negotiation method. 5) Negotiate to adjust other issues such as increasing quota, adjusting disadvantages in article 3 (i) and 3 (iii) (a), and add article of enforcement to the VER Agreement