เศรษฐศาสตร์การเมืองว่าด้วยบทบาทของกลุ่มผลประโยชน์ทางธุรกิจในประเทศไทย กรณีศึกษา : บทบาทของสภาหอการค้าแห่งประเทศไทยในการเจรจาข้อตกลงการค้าระหว่างประเทศ / พรศิลป์ พัชรินทร์ตนะกุล = Political Economy on business interest groups in Thailand : a case study of the role of the Board of Trade of Thailand in international trade agreements / Pornsil Patchintanakul
To study role of The Board of Trade of Thailand in participating in the making of International Trade Agreements, in order to identify the problems, obstacles, and means for improvement so that benefits of the country are served both at present and in the future. The period of the study is from the year 1975 upto 2008. It focuses on agricultural products in the following three types of trade agreements: Multilateral, (World Trade Organization) Regional Free Trade Agreement (for example: ASEAN -China Free Trade Agreement) and Bilateral Free Trade Agreement (for example: Australia-Thailand Free Trade Agreement). The study employs the following Theories namely: 1.Corporatism: The Relation between Public and Private Sectors, 2. Neomercantilism: The trade policy of a country of exporting more than importing resulting in gain in trade balance and 3. Neoliberalism that sets the rules for free trade liberalization. The study also includes theory of Relational Power and its 6 supportive powers directing the decision making process of Thai negotiators and its negotiating partners. The study shows that The Board of Trade of Thailand has a non-significant role in setting conditions as well as in negotiation process which are due to the following shortfalls: funding, which results in the lack of research work, insufficiency of qualified personnel, which prevents it from working proactively as well as extending capacity building for its members to enable them to compete under the new global trade and investment environment. The thesis finds that international trade rules are set by developed countries who are still adopting the policy of gaining trade balance through creating trade barriers in the name of free trade agreements. To tackle these problems successfully, this thesis proposes the following: 1. The Board of Trade of Thailand has to have more fund to support its international trade negotiations and related work, 2. all the Directors have to spend more time and effort to work for The Board of Trade of Thailand, and 3. The Board of Trade of Thailand has to increase technical staff so that this institution will gain confidence from the public and become more trustworthy and professional-like interest group with power to set and drive the economy of the country.
