Country Focus: Thailand

The United States is Thailand’s top export market. Two-way trade of goods in 2020 was $48.8 billion. As of May 2021, the total exports from the U.S. to Thailand stands at $5.35 billion. Total U.S. exports were estimated to be $13.3 billion and $11.3 billion in 2019 and 2020 respectively. (US Census Bureau Foreign Trade, n.d.). Despite Thailand’s openness to U.S. products and services, we have found that our client companies are hesitant to prioritize it due to a lack of familiarity with the country. The U.S. Commercial Service advises considering Thailand for the following reasons:

• Thailand is the second largest economy in ASEAN and is an upper middle-income country with an open economy and a gross domestic product (GDP) of $503.5 billion.
• Thailand is the 25th largest export destination for the United States.
• U.S. service exports to Thailand in 2019 were estimated to be $3.4 billion.
• Top U.S. export categories to Thailand included mineral fuels ($2.5 billion), electrical machinery ($2.3 billion), machinery ($1.1 billion), vehicles ($755 million), and optical and medical instruments ($606 million) (Thailand | United States Trade Representative, n.d.).

If you are interested in pursuing opportunities in Thailand through the SEA Change project, or would like to learn more, please contact the Project Director, Jim Ryan, at jryan@bradley.edu.