Which is the sustainable economic partnership for Thailand : TPP or RECP?

Indeterminate delays in finalising the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations and the need to improve their economic performance following the Global Financial Crisis have led WTO members to pursue alternative options. With respect to Thailand, two major multilateral Asia Pacific agreements are under negotiation. One is the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP) in which all negotiating parties are also members of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). The TPP is much more extensive than a conventional Free Trade Agreement as it also seeks to establish uniform rules across the member economies in areas such as competition policy, government procurement, small and medium business enterprises (SMEs), intellectual property (IP), labour standards and environmental policy. There is a major concern that the current TPP negotiations could have major impact on the public health and medicine policies and other areas of intellectual property protection such as an extension of copyright laws; international application of local laws e.g. possible extraterritorial reach of United States domestic laws; imposition of labour and environmental laws. Thailand is yet to decide if it wished to be part of the negotiations. The other major regional proposal is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) being promoted by ASEAN for economic cooperation between the ten countries of ASEAN plus a further six countries who have, or are negotiating, Free Trade Agreements with ASEAN. The advantage to Thailand is that the RCEP is economy-based. This paper discusses the potential impact on the sustainability of the Thai economy and its social fabric from membership of TPP or RCEP.