As the trend of the Green Economy takes on a more significant role in the current era and is crucial to environmental policies that will impact Thailand's trade, measures such as the Plastic Tax or Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) are being used to address Climate Change issues.
The measure of collecting plastic tax is an issue that Thai businesses must consider, as it will become a rising cost in trade due to several trading partner countries starting to enforce such a tax. This will involve levying fees or charges on producers, importers, or member countries that manufacture, import, or use single-use and hard-to-degrade plastic products or packaging, excluding recycled plastic packaging.
Currently, some countries have implemented and are preparing to implement plastic taxes:
Countries that are preparing to levy plastic taxes include:
As for Thailand, data from the Office of Trade Policy and Strategy (OTPS) indicates that in 2021, the total value of exported plastic products to global markets was 140,772.17 billion baht or 2.07% of total exports. For the first 11 months of 2022, the export value of plastic products was 146,580.53 billion baht, an increase of 14.09% from the same period in the previous year.
Thailand's top five export markets are:
Data updated on April, 21, 2023
Source: National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA)
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