Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing US-Thai Treaty of Amity. For those who are unaware, the Treaty, it is a major benefit to Americans here in Thailand. It allows us to do business with what is called national treatment which thereby means we, much like Thais, can own our companies 100%. There are restrictions to the Treaty. Not all business activity can be performed per the Treaty so it is not complete equality with Thais but it's pretty darn close and no other nationality really has this benefit. 

As far as the history goes, it really is fascinating. I am not going to do a super duper deep dive into the Treaty; I may one of these days do like a long form video on the history of the Treaty, I might do that. It would be a lot of work but I might go ahead and do that. It goes back 190 years. We are 10 years shy of the 200-year mark of Treaty relations between the United States and Thailand. There have been multiple iterations of it. One time it was called the Treaty of Navigation and Commerce. If you go back it is interesting, I was recently reading a biography of Jim Thompson the famous silk vendor here in Thailand and Mr. Thompson had owned his house at one time under the provisions of the Treaty of Navigation and Commerce as that iteration sat at the time that he was in Thailand. Later that was revised and those provisions were rescinded from what is now the Treaty of Amity which was ratified in '66 by the US Senate and signed by President Lyndon Johnson. But yeah there was a time, again Jim Thompson owned his house because that iteration of the Treaty allowed it; there was a reciprocity agreement under that iteration of the Treaty. 

But these days yeah there is a major benefit to Americans under the Treaty of being able to own their own companies; I myself set up out here initially utilizing Treaty protections. It is a major boom so Americans that are looking to do business here in Thailand, the US-Thai Treaty of Amity is definitely something to look at.