Chutima Bunyapraphasara said the department was working with the private sector and educational institutions to study all of the Kingdom's bilateral trade pacts - both those that have been signed and those that are still being negotiated.

The study will review whether each trade pact should be negotiated further and then report the findings to both the Cabinet and the National Legislative Assembly.

Chutima said members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooporation (Apec) forum will next year enter serious negotiations on forming an Asia-Pacific Free-Trade Area to boost trade and investment growth among members.

The idea of a free-trade area has received strong support from many Apec members over the past two years, but it has never been tabled in a meeting.

The world economy's move towards the free flow of goods, services and investment should prompt member nations to seriously negotiate free-trade agreements (FTAs) among themselves, she said.

Next year's Apec Summit will be held in Australia.

Chutima added that Commerce Minister Krirkkrai Jirapaet would provide more details of the interim government's sufficiency-economy policy to Apec members at this year's summit meeting in Hanoi next week.

The minister will use the platform to explain that the government would facilitate all foreign investors based on independent conditions, and allow free-trade activities.

But the sufficiency-economy policy would strive for more mutual benefit and as well as concentrate on moral-based activities, she said.

In addition, Krirkkrai and his Peruvian counterpart are scheduled to sign an agreement on rules of origin on the sidelines of the summit in a bid to implement the early harvest programme of the Thai-Peruvian FTA, signed at the Apec Summit in Pusan, South Korea, last November.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation