The Commerce Ministry yesterday awarded certificates to the first 26 companies which have established internal compliance programmes (ICP) that meet criteria prescribed by the ministry to prevent trade activities pertaining to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Pitak Udomwichaiwat, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said the ICPs benefit exporters by clearly outlining the data of users and end-users for the government if their products are subject to export checks.
Without an ICP, if a company's products attract the suspicion of intelligence agencies, their exports may be halted or held back by governments.
According to Mr Pitak, once established the ICPs would also help promote the image of Thai exports by demonstrating that Thai products have proper controls on products pertaining to the proliferation of WMD on par with international standards.
The ICP initiative is a voluntary system operated by the private sector to monitor dual-use items (DUIs) -- goods that have both commercial and military use -- through a network to collect products, users and end-user data.
Japan already implemented an ICP, while the EU enforced a similar act, adopting the list of all the products prescribed by the United Nations.
"The department encourages the private sector to set up ICPs that meet international standards as well as a network to collaborate with government agencies to control DUI exports, re-exports, transit, transhipment, technology and software transfers," said Mr Pitak.
Regarding DUI products related to WMD, Thailand referred to the EU's list in 2019 that featured 1,813 items covering industrial products such as electronics, electrical appliances, computers, plastics, mechanical machinery as well as chemicals.
Amid the pandemic, Covid-19 variants are included on the export control lists as they cannot only be used to produce vaccines but also for nefarious means such as the production of biological weapons.
Drones able to fly within a range of 300 kilometres are also regarded as DUIs because they could be used to collect data for R&D or as a form of missile for terrorism purposes.
Firms that have passed through the department's certification include Kang Yong Electric Plc, Covestro (Thailand) Co, Sanmina-SCI Systems (Thailand), Sojitz (Thailand) Co, Sony Technology (Thailand) Co, Daikin Industries (Thailand) Co and Denso Electronics (Thailand).
Others include Toyota Daihatsu Engineering & Manufacturing Co, Toyota Tsusho (Thailand) Co, Nissan Trading (Thailand) Co, Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) Co, Mitsubishi Electric Consumer Products (Thailand) Co and Yamaha Motor Asian Center Co.
