CHIANG MAI - More than 300 activists have rallied at the Tha Pae Gate in Chiang Mai’s Muang district in protest against the proposed Thai-EU free trade agreement.
More than 300 activists from the FTA Watch coalition rallied at the Tha Pae Gate in Chiang Mai’s Muang district in protest against plans for a Thailand-EU free trade agreement. (Photo by Tawatchai Kemkumnerd)
The group, FTA Watch, is worried that the bilateral deal will make pharmaceutical patents, medical treatments and plant seeds more expensive, and argue that increased liberalisation of liquor could lead to social problems.
Thai government officials are currently in talks with European delegates on the possible free trade agreement. Meetings between the two sides are scheduled to run for a week until Friday at a hotel in Chiang Mai.
FTA Watch last week urged Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to take all references to intellectual property rights off the table in negotiations. In particular, activists stressed that the country has to refuse any agreement on pharmaceutical patents and biological diversity.
Representatives of Thai activists met with Joao Aguiar Machado, deputy director-general of the EC’s Directorate-General for Trade and the EU’s chief negotiator, on Wednesday afternoon, to express their concerns.
The FTA Watch coalition consists of civic groups including the Alternative Agriculture Network, the Organic Agriculture Network, the HIV/AIDS Patients Network, the Alcohol Abstention Network, and the Consumers Network.
