The Cabinet yesterday approved a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Japan, paving the way for Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to sign the FTA when he visits Japan next week, said officials.

"The Cabinet has approved the Thai-Japanese free-trade agreement, so Prime Minister Surayud can go ahead and sign it," Pisan Manawapat, Thailand's chief negotiator for the deal, told reporters.

"The signing ceremony will take place on April 3 in Tokyo," he added.

The approval marks the first trade pact to be executed by the interim government. The Thailand-Japan FTA, or Japan-Thai Economic Partnership Agreement (Jtepa), was initiated under the deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government five years ago.

Negotiations on the deal were completed in September 2005, and the governments of both sides originally planned to ink the deal last April 3.

The signing, if it happens, will mark an exactly one-year delay from the original scheduled signing date, which was later postponed, due to the political situation in Thailand after Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in the September 19 coup.

However, FTA Watch, an umbrella group of non-governmental organisations, plans to file a petition tomorrow with the Administrative Court to block the signing. Three Foreign Affairs Ministry officials will be named in the petition.

"If the court agrees to look into the case, the prime minister cannot sign the pact on his visit to Japan," said Bantoon Setthasiroj, head of the group.

Before the Cabinet's meeting, FTA Watch submitted a petition to Surayud, asking the government to review its plan to ink the FTA.

FTA Watch says signing Jtepa would cause great negative effects on farmers and indeed all of Thai society, because the agreement would allow waste dumping and a monopoly on seedlings. They also cited the non-transparent negotiation process and conflicts of interest as reasons for Thailand to scrap the agreement.

Virachai Plasai, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's International Economic Affairs Department, said although the agreement was passed by a military-installed government, the government did want to ensure a transparent procedure.

"Since I've been working, this deal is the first one that went to the Cabinet's consideration four times. This shows that the Cabinet placed an emphasis on this agreement and debated every single word before the signing," he said.

He refused to comment on FTA Watch's plan to ask the Administrative Court to block the agreement. Nonetheless, he said the government was aware of concerns about provisions that would allow Japan to send ore waste to Thailand and patent genetically modified micro-organisms.

Virachai said the Thai government would enforce the law to prevent anyone from dumping waste in Thailand.

On patenting genetically modified micro-organisms, Virachai said Thailand would not commit to anything beyond the commitment it made with the World Trade Organisation.

After signing the agreement, both sides will take another three or four months for final revision before it is enacted into law.

Under the deal, Japan and Thailand agreed that more than 90 per cent of bilateral trade should be tariff-free in 10 years, and Bangkok vowed to step up transparency and legal protections to help Japanese investors.

Both sides made some concessions but maintained reservations on two heavily protected sectors: automobiles for Thailand and agriculture for Japan.

Piyanart Srivalo,

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation