Also in 2004, Thaksin attempted to ramrod through a US-Thailand Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) without bangkok_4_thaiparliamentary approval, backed by the US-ASEAN Business Council who just before the 2011 elections that saw Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra brought into power, hosted the leaders of Thaksin’s “red shirt” “United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship” (UDD) in Washington DC.