Pichai noted that exports in 2025 grew by 12.93% as previously stated, contrary to the opposition, academics, and media who doubted this. He revealed the growth was driven by confidence from the Thailand-EFTA FTA completed in early 2025 and the surge in investment during 2024-2025. He advised maintaining export and investment levels and continuing the 11 Commerce initiatives established by the previous government.
Mr. Pichai Naripthaphan, former Minister of Commerce. He said exports in December rebounded strongly by 16.8%, after only 5.7% and 7.1% growth in October and November respectively, resulting in a full-year export growth of 12.93% in 2025, as he had predicted mid-year that exports would exceed double digits. At that time, the opposition, academics, and media did not believe this and tried to discredit it. The director responsible even called to say that when he predicted over double-digit export growth, people laughed and mocked him, claiming the growth was due to rushed shipments to avoid Trump tariffs and that exports would decline in the second half of the year. It is now clear this was not true. Even after the Trump tariff negotiations ended in early August, exports in September still grew by 19%, and export growth continued through the end of 2025. When the new Commerce Minister took office, he announced exports would grow only 6-7%, but Pichai publicly disagreed, saying that was impossible and exports would grow much more.
The export growth was partly due to renewed confidence in Thailand following the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with the EFTA group—Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland. This was Thailand’s first FTA with European countries, completed on 30 November 2024 and signed on 23 January 2025. This greatly expanded trade and investment, effectively putting Thailand back on the global map after a decade without FTAs with countries of this level. The international community expects Thailand to soon complete an FTA with the European Union (EU) and other FTAs. Pichai personally negotiated with EU Commissioner on Trade Maros Sejkovic, aiming to conclude the agreement before the end of 2025, but unfortunately government changes occurred first.
The success of the FTA with EFTA led to a 78.66% export growth to EFTA countries in 2025 and investment promotion requests soaring to 1.37 trillion baht in the first nine months, surpassing the full-year 2024 figure of 1.14 trillion baht. Export growth in 2025 at 12.93% followed the 5.4% growth in 2024, showing continuous expansion in exports and investment, which will help revive Thailand’s economy. Vietnam’s GDP surpassing Thailand this year is due to stronger export and investment growth over the past decade, plus Vietnam’s FTAs with more than 60 countries.
Therefore, Pichai wants the incoming government soon to maintain this export growth and further increase investment. He urges continuation of many initiatives by the Ministry of Commerce with a clear digital footprint, regardless of the ruling party or personnel changes, continuing 11 key initiatives and expanding them as follows.
1. Maintaining the export growth achieved in 2025 of 12.93%, following 5.4% growth in 2024, hoping to keep double-digit expansion for several years to rapidly revive Thailand’s economy. Although export forecasts for 2026 may not be optimistic, he personally believes there is still economic momentum to push 2026 exports to high positive growth.
2. Accelerating free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations. After completing the FTA with EFTA and signing it in January 2025, he urges speeding up FTA talks with the 27-country European Union (EU), which should have been completed last year, likely following a similar model as with EFTA. Also continuing FTAs with South Korea, the UK, UAE, and ASEAN-Canada, among others. Experience shows that the minister must personally engage to achieve faster success.
3. Breaking the rice export monopoly, which has already made progress such as reducing registration time from 3 days to 30 minutes, lowering stock requirements and fees for exporters. If small exporters perform well, regulations should be further relaxed to help farmers and small exporters enter the business more easily.
4. Addressing the problem of low-quality goods. During his tenure, over 57,000 cases were prosecuted to protect Thai SMEs from cheap, poor-quality imports. This requires stricter enforcement, especially by Customs Department as the main control point.
5. Tackling nominee issues, with 851 cases prosecuted worth over 15.3 billion baht and 46,918 cases under investigation. There must be accelerated investigation and action against offenders.
6. Expanding rice export markets. During his time, exports to Africa reached 400,000 tons, and the Thai Rice Convention sold 660,000 tons, including large orders from Iraq. Such efforts should be increased, alongside expanding other agricultural exports like cassava to Saudi Arabia, which succeeded in May 2025.
7. Promoting Food Storage policies started earlier through participation in events in Qatar and early sales to Singapore. Prime Minister Paetongtarn discussed this with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, and Pichai continued talks with Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong. Many Middle Eastern countries have shown strong interest.
8. Building branding for Thai products using the Thailand Brand as a quality guarantee, enabling the brand to establish a strong market presence independently.
9. Concluding negotiations with the U.S. regarding Trump tariffs. The Thailand team, led by the Ministry of Commerce and its permanent secretary, negotiated twice with USTR Jamieson Greer, reducing Trump tariffs from 36% to 19%, though with conditions requiring further efforts. There is hope the U.S. will reduce tariffs further after Prime Minister Anutin met and negotiated with former President Trump.
10. Maintaining strong relations with China to help offload agricultural products like durian, cassava, rice, and various fruits, with continued cooperation from the Chinese Embassy and government.
11. Maintaining and improving the quality of Thai Select certification for Thai restaurants, elevating its format to resemble Michelin Stars, enhancing Thailand’s image through Thai cuisine both domestically and abroad.
These are only some of the many tasks of the Ministry of Commerce. Pichai is pleased that Thai people are paying more attention to the ministry’s work, which is vital to the economy. He has worked hard during his tenure hoping to help Thailand’s economy recover quickly and increase incomes, aiming for Thailand to become a high-income country in the future. He wishes to see over 30 initiatives already documented be continued and achieve even greater success.
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