Thailand no longer “notorious” for pirated goods as tag removed by US

Thai officials are patting themselves on the back after it was revealed that the country no longer has any “notorious markets” for fake and pirated goods.

The assessment comes from the United States Trade Representatives’ (USTR) group who Manager said have also removed the country from the Priority Watch List (PWL) for countries involved in piracy. This was on December 15th of last year.

Sonthirat Sonthijirawong, the chief of the Commerce Ministry, said that for the first time in ten years Thailand is not considered to have even one notorious market.

Previously in the period from 2007-2016 Thailand had up to 13 places in the notorious category. They included Panthip Plaza, Jatujak, Upper Sukhumvit and Patpong and MBK in Bangkok, IT City in Pattaya, the Rong Klua market in the Sa Kaew border area and the Karon and Patong areas of Phuket.

MBK center – still on the list in 2016 – was the last to be removed in 2017.

The Thai authorities under pressure from the US have been striving over the last decade to improve the country’s image in regards to piracy and fake products.

Sonthirat said that 700 cases had been pursued in 2017 with many arrests and seizures of products.

Thai Visa / Manager Online

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