Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, 'are Amity Treaty Companies here in Thailand domestic American Corporations?' What are we talking about? Well, Thai companies can be certified under what is called the US-Thai Treaty of Amity which for those who are unaware, the US-Thai Treaty of Amity provides a great many benefits. It is a Treaty that goes back some 190 years here in Thailand; our diplomatic relationship with the Thais goes back to 200 years, and we've maintained this Treaty Alliance all through that period of time. One of the major benefits - relative to other nationalities for Americans under the Treaty - is the ability to be granted what's called National Treatment with regard to ownership of Thai companies i.e. an American who owns a company here in Thailand is treated as if they are Thai, notwithstanding the Foreign Business Act which means that effectively in American can own a company here in Thailand outright. That said, now the question is what kind of company is that? Is that a foreign corporation from the United States or a domestic one? 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Trade surplus with US to top agenda. Quoting directly: "Commerce Minister Pichai Naripthaphan is scheduled to visit the US in February to address concerns regarding Thailand's Trade surplus with the US. Following a meeting at the Commerce Ministry with representatives from 50 US Corporations on Monday who are members of the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC) which includes notable multinationals such as Amazon, Apple, Boeing, Citi, Google, MasterCard and Seagate, Mr. Pichai said US investors remain interested in expanding their investments in Thailand including companies such as Western Digital, Seagate, Google and HP. The Minister also requested US investors inform President-elect Donald Trump that Thailand's Trade surplus with the US has risen from American companies investing in Thailand and exporting goods back to the US, so Thailand should not be subject to increased import tariffs given this situation."

Yeah. Also, I would make the argument, a strong one, that these are domestic corporations of the United States and why would that even be said. I have discussed this in other videos. I'm going to go ahead and put a link to a brief I've done on this in the past and I have discussed this at length in the past, when Trump Tax first came down, the issue that's called the issue of Controlled Foreign Corporations and how their tax, things like deemed repatriation, GILTI, FDII, all of this stuff that was created under Trump Tax. Some years back, I looked into all of this because I was like, 'how does this apply to Thailand?' and while many people got into the issue of what is control, how much is a controlling share of a corporation, I went down the rabbit hole of 'what is foreign?' Are Thai companies certified under the US-Thai Treaty of Amity actually foreign corporations of the United States. And it looks to me that they are not because the definition of a ‘foreign corporation’ is defined as, first of all a foreign corporation is not domestic, and as I have gotten into in that brief and again, I'll link it in the description below, so a foreign corporation is defined as not domestic. A domestic corporation is a corporation created or organized under US Law and as discussed in prior videos, National Treatment granted by the Treaty, the provisions of the Treaty regarding National Treatment, result in the organization of Amity Treaties being oftentimes majority American-owned companies. And in light of the Foreign Business Act, that would not be permitted in most instances but due to the Treaty and the National Treatment granted therein, these companies can be organized as majority-owned American businesses. And therefore, because they're organized under US Law, and why are they organized under US Law, because the Treaty of Amity was ratified in 1966 and pursuant to article 6 of The Constitution, ratified Treaties become and I quote "The Law of the Land” of the United States, American Amity Treaties are at least, at the very least organized under US Law and therefore such companies are not considered foreign. They are considered, by default effectively, domestic corporations.

So, the question posed is, would any of the output from any of these domestic American corporations even be considered imports to the United States at all? I think it's a valid question and one that we may actually see some form of clarification on moving forward into this new Trump term, and as we do, we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.