Thai officials said that their country could proceed with its plans to amend the Foreign Business Act without breaking the policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It must be noted that under the Foreign Business Act, both the shareholdings and voting rights would be used in determining whether a business is foreign or not. Chutima Boonyaprapas, who is the current chief of Trade Negotiations Department at the Commerce Ministry, stated that Thailand had the right to make such changes and that the move did not violate any rules of global trade.

According to Thai officials, their country did not make any commitment in terms of the liberalization of important businesses like wholesale and retail industries for foreigners. The officials made these comments in view of the comments of some critics who warned that changing Thailand's Foreign Business Act might violate the commitments of the country to the global trade bloc.

Meanwhile, Commerce Minister Krirk-krai Jirapaet is hoping to send the proposed changes to the 1999 Foreign Business Act to the Cabinet members this month. It must be noted that the committee that was led by Pramon Sutiviong presented its recommendations for legal reforms last Tuesday. Mr. Sutiviong is currently the chief of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. According to him, the newly proposed bill would classify as foreign all the firms controlled and managed by foreigners in terms of voting rights. It must be noted that previously, the ministry had only utilized direct shareholdings in evaluating the compliance of firms with the FBA, which allows foreign shareholding to reach up to 49% only. Supporters of the proposal said that the bill did not break any rules of the global trade bloc.

At present, a number of countries are currently focused on their bid to join the WTO. It must be noted that just recently, Vietnam acceded to the global trade body after meeting all the WTO requirements and getting the approval of the members of the organization. The Asian nation officially acceded to the WTO on December 28, 2006. Meanwhile, Russia is also in the final stages of its application. After securing a bilateral trade deal with the US a few weeks ago, Russia must now seek similar agreements with the other members of the global trade body. Ethiopia is another country that is hoping to enter the WTO soon. Recently, the African country submitted a memo to the WTO headquarters as part of the process of its entry to the economic bloc.