Against this backdrop, this paper assesses the impact of FTAs on the supply chain
using the Thai automotive industry as a case study. The automotive industry is suitable
for this analysis for two reasons. Firstly, Thailand is one of the major production
platforms for the largest players in the international auto industry. Secondly,
automotive products and vehicles in particular are still subject to high tariff because
they were sensitive items in the WTO multilateral trade liberalization. By contrast, they
are usually included in FTAs tariff liberalization program. Hence, it would be
interesting to examine the actual liberalization effect on them. While there are
numerous previous studies examining the effect of FTAs such as Magee (2003 and
2008); Soloaga and Winters (2001); Bayoumi and Eichengreen (1995); Athukorala and
Yamashita, (2006); Wignaraja et al. (2010); Takahashi and Urata (2009); and
Kohpaiboon (2010), they mostly undertook a sectoral analysis on a national basis.
There has been no systematic analysis of industry case studies that focuses on the
effects of FTAs on the supply chain.