Transcript of the above video: 

Import, export and customs in Thailand is what we're talking about in this video. Specifically this is a topic which I think is becoming increasingly on the minds of people as we are seeing Thailand's economy start to heat back up. The world economy is kind of starting to come online. We are seeing issues with regard to some of Thailand's export sector that has operated in the past having problems retooling and adapting itself to things like dumping from China into the Thai market. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Khao Sod English, khaosodenglish.com, the article is titled: From Australian suspect to Canadian tourist in 7-year journey in Bangkok. So we've done a number of videos contemporaneously with this one talking about this article specifically. I urge those who are watching this video, go read that article in detail because there's a lot of good insight in there. Long story short, there was a dual national who was apprehended in Thailand and it was found that they had used one of their passports to come into Thailand and during that time period, had gotten into some problems with regard to Thai Customs. Then subsequently they switched over to another passport, evaded their warrants associated with that custom's problem and then returned to Thailand some years later utilizing a different passport in an effort to sort of for lack of a better term, circumvent if you will the Immigration Authorities and Customs Authorities here in Thailand. Suffice it to say, that person was apprehended and is probably going to have to deal with the consequences of that; I have discussed that at length in other videos. 

That said, we're going to quote a small excerpt here pertaining specifically to import-export which I'll get into here in a moment. Quoting directly: "He was accused of Customs evasion, which means the act of importing or exporting goods without paying duties, bringing in controlled imports, or moving goods in or out of Thailand without properly going through Customs procedures. Anyone who violates this law faces maximum penalties: the smuggled goods will be confiscated, and the offender will be fined four times the value of the goods including taxes, or imprisoned for up to 10 years, or both fined and imprisoned." So as you can see, Thailand takes Customs violations very seriously. 

Now what are we talking about for purposes of this channel? Well look I see more and more people that are looking to come to Thailand and engage in businesses where they either need to import certain items or they are looking to export and sell their produce from Thailand on the open global market. Dealing with Customs can be a daunting thing. We've dealt with Customs for years; we have dealt with folks who help us sort of facilitate movement of products through the Customs facilities and paying reasonable and necessary and warranted Customs duties. Now sometimes Custom duties may not be warranted depending on the items you're talking about. Sometimes there may be scenarios where you can deal with bonded areas and things, again depending on the underlying facts of the given case where you may not be paying Customs in Thailand but you may have to deal with them, it's sort of akin to the difference between assessability and liability in the tax context. 

But long story short, the thing to take away from this video is to understand that you need to be in compliance with Customs otherwise you can find yourself with real problems in terms of criminal penalties and fines.