Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the US-Thai Treaty of Amity. For those who are unaware there is a Treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of Thailand that allows the nationals of both countries to be granted national treatment when doing business in either country. So for example when Thais go to the United States, they are treated just as if they were an American for purposes of doing business. More importantly as a practical matter, those Americans who come to Thailand and operate in Thailand can depending on circumstances, go ahead and set up a company and have it certified under the US-Thai Treaty of Amity and then be granted national treatment under the terms of the Treaty and thereby do business as a Thai would notwithstanding or as a Thai Company would I should say, notwithstanding the provisions of the Foreign Business Act which may restrict those types of operations for people that for example aren't American. So it is a substantial benefit for Americans looking to do business here in the Kingdom. 

Now the question posed, how much do they cost? Well again this is one of those simple questions that I think a lot of lay people think is simple that they get frustrated with us lawyers because we can't give them a "straight" answer. Well long story short is it is going to depend substantially on what you are looking to do. For one thing, it is not a foregone conclusion that all types of business activity here in Thailand will be covered under the Treaty; there are certain restrictions even to the Treaty notwithstanding the many benefits granted by it. Moreover, different types of corporate structures and different types of prospective business activity may require more legal work; may require more work in terms of certification under the Treaty especially where you are dealing with sort of specific types of like technical tasks; again it is going to be highly circumstantially dependent. The cost is going to depend on exactly what you are doing so while I know a lot of people like to just send an email that says "Give me a quote, what does it cost to do this? what does it cost to set up an Amity Company?" Well it depends on what you are doing, it depends on the underlying facts in the given case.