On 23 – 24 May 2019, Mr. Notachard Chintakanon, Executive Director of International Affairs Bureau from The Office of National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission of Thailand opened The Negative List Approach for Telecommunications and Broadcasting Services Workshop at Pullman G Pattaya Hotel, Chonburi Province, Thailand. Professor Bryan Christopher Mercurio was the lecturer of this workshop. He currently works at the Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and researches in the field of International Economic. The workshop was attended by 44 NBTC officers from the relevant bureaus.
Thailand has participated in multilateral, regional and bilateral trade negotiations and has continuously liberalized trade in both goods and services. For instance, Thailand has been engaged in the negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Nevertheless, the pattern of trade negotiation has changed for the past few years. Particularly, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and ASEAN Trade in Services Agreement (ATISA) were decided to have a negative listing of schedules instead of the former positive list basis. The change of scheduling pattern aims to increase trade commitments and liberalization. Meanwhile, it provides the reservation for some conditions regarding the foreign equity participation and the development of domestic regulation and policy in the future.
In order to properly schedule telecommunications and audio-visual services on the negative list basis that are in accordance with Thai laws and regulations, it is important for the officers from the Office of the NBTC to understand basic principles of such scheduling. The purposes of this workshop are that: 1) the NBTC officers are able to schedule the telecommunications and audio-visual services on the negative list approach 2) the NBTC officers have opportunity to discuss the relevant issues with the high-experienced legal expert 3) the NBTC officers are able to correctly schedule commitments in accordance with Thai laws and regulations.
Professor Bryan Christopher Mercurio, who is an expert in the international trade law from the Chinese University of Hong Kong Sha Tin, divided this workshop into 6 sessions which consist of both lectures and working-group simulations as follows:
1) Lecture Session - The Basics of Trade in Services
2) Lecture Session - Approaches to the Scheduling
3) Working Groups Simulations - Preparing a Negative List for Telecommunications and Broadcasting Services
4) Lecture Session - Particular Scheduling Challenges
5) Working Groups Simulations - Particular Challenges when drafting a Negative List Approach
6) Working Groups Simulations - Additional Techniques for Drafting a Negative List Approach