Hundreds protest Thai-EU free trade talks in northern Thailand
dpa | 18.8.2013
Hundreds protest Thai-EU free trade talks in northern Thailand
By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online
Bangkok (dpa) — Hundreds of Thais gathered in the northern city of Chiang Mai Wednesday to protest against talks on establishing a Free Trade Agreement between Thailand and the European Union.
Thai and EU trade negotiators will meet in Chiang Mai, 680 kilometres north of Bangkok, on Thursday and Friday to discuss details for setting up an FTA, a process which usually takes several years.
"On Thursday we will gather more than 3,000 protesters outside Le Meridien Hotel, where the talks are being held," said Kingkorn Nalintarakul, a coordinator of the FTA Watch group.
"We want to pressure the Thai side not to give in to the EU on pharmaceuticals and tariff-free alcohol imports," she said.
FTA Watch has raised concerns over moves to increase patent protection of European-made pharmaceuticals which could raise the price of medicines in Thailand, especially for the poor.
Currently several categories of pharmaceuticals, including anti-viral HIV/AIDS drugs, are sold in generic form in Thailand, avoiding patent protection imposed by the companies that developed the original drugs.
There are an estimated 700,000 HIV-positive cases in Thailand.
"A trade agreement should not benefit only a small group and should not impose burdens upon society as a whole, in particular on the poor," FTA Watch said in a letter addressed to Joao Aguiar Machado, the EU‘s chief trade negotiator.
