| Many important issues regarding a free trade | | | | governments, and the state government may |
| agreement are often overlooked or misunderstood. | | | | choose not to enforce some sections of an FTA. |
| Taking Thailand as an example, the government and | | | | Also, besides the Thai government and a few |
| the negotiator teams always emphasize that Thailand | | | | officials no one knows the details of the agreements, |
| will benefit from the deals by obtaining a lower tariff | | | | and the public has been kept in the dark. Some Thai |
| rate. Presently, the average import tariff rate on the | | | | sectors, like the transportation sector, will be hit hard, |
| US is only 3.4 percent. The real barriers are in the | | | | as foreign companies have a more funds and better |
| non-tariff measures such as contingency protection, | | | | technology. Overall, free trade agreements are not |
| technical measures, subsidies and rules of origin, not | | | | always fair and don't offer equal benefits to both |
| the tariff measures. Moreover, under the constitution, | | | | parties, so the government and the public should be |
| Thailand is a single state. Thus any deal will enter into | | | | aware of these discrepancies and integrate them into |
| force for the entire area. This is different in the US, | | | | their decisions. |
| as it has both a federal government and state | | | | |