The free trade ideal received a boost when US President George W Bush announced on the eve of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit that negotiations to set up a comprehensive free agreement with summit host Thailand would be begin next year.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been pushing for the bilateral free trade agreement with the US for the past two years and Bush's announcement that an agreement was in the works was seen as a reward for Thai support for the US-led war on terrorism.
Thai officials said a Thai-US free trade agreement would be a big boost to the Thai economy, particularly exporters of electronic goods, agricultural products and textiles.
The only other country in the region with a free trade agreement with the US is Singapore, where Bush will travel at the conclusion of his Thai state visit tomorrow.
Another carrot offered by Bush was the granting of "major non-Nato ally" status to Thailand, which will give the kingdom priority in receiving military aid and the purchase of advanced weapons systems.
Only six other nations - Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines - have been granted this designation.
Senior Asian government leaders attending the summit said they hoped to steer the agenda closer to Apec's original function as an economic grouping and away from Bush's single-minded focus on the war on terrorism.
The leaders said it was imperative that multilateral trade talks under the Doha Development Agenda be put back on track after the failure of the Cancun talks in September.
The talks broke down mainly over disagreements related to subsidised agricultural production in developed nations, which effectively shuts out imports from the developing world and worsens poverty in less-developed countries.
Thaksin, who was scheduled to chair a "retreat" of Apec leaders yesterday at Government House, was reported to have urged his fellow heads of government to be flexible in order to bring the Doha Development Agenda back on track.
The director-general of the World Trade Organisation, Thailand's Supachai Panitchpakdi, has also urged government and business leaders to put aside their differences in order to salvage multilateral trade talks.
However, although Supachai is in Bangkok and has spoken at several informal trade forums on the summit sidelines, he has not been invited to speak at the main summit.
Supachai is a member of the opposition Democrat Party and is seen as a rival of Thaksin.- Sapa-DPA.
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