Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Thai Prime Minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, and a recent speech that she did at the APEC conference, the Asia Pacific Economic Community Conference - I believe it was in Peru - I don't remember off the top my head where exactly that was, but yeah she did a recent speech and made a proposal which I think is kind of a big deal. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: PM backs new free trade area. Quoting directly: "Thailand will push for a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) and support efforts to promote a green economy and sustainability." Well, aside from the constantly peppered-in sustainability greenness and all of this stuff, I have got to be honest with you and credit where credit is due, I think this is a pretty good idea because as I have discussed in other videos, you've got BRICS kind of breathing down Thailand's neck on one end and then you have got OECD and all their harmonization that I can only see as a detriment to Thailand. It's nice to see that the Thai Prime Minister is proposing something that frankly acts as an alternative to both. I mean in a sense, as with many things in Thailand, it seems to my mind at least to be something of a middle path through this if you will. That said, quoting further: "Prime Minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra attended the APEC Economic Leaders' retreat chaired by Peru President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra." If you think I have problems with the transliteration of Thai names, well there you go the Peruvians, I've got issues with that too. At the end of the day I am just a humble Kansas boy. Quoting further: "Before the closing ceremony of the 31st Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Lima on Saturday. The Prime Minister also reaffirmed Thailand's readiness to promote regional economic integration through a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) to promote trade sustainability. The FTAAP would boost member economies' capacity by encouraging all stakeholders' involvement, Ms. Paetongtarn said." 

You know, I really hate that terminology, 'stakeholders', it's another one of those nonsense words that has been kind of injected into the vernacular in the last roughly 5 years or so. Stakeholder economics is this neo-Keynesian, modern monetary theory and all the really kind of Neo-Marxist thinking where not ownership necessarily, is the only person or the only interest that gets a say in how business works and in my opinion that's just nonsense. But leaving that aside, I do think that this could this this whole notion of a Pan-Pacific if you will trade area kind of cuts through all, to my mind at least, sort of cuts through all of this competition if you will between the West, primarily sort of spearheaded by America, the USA, up against China and I expect that as Trump comes into office, we will probably see some more tension with regard to trade, the so-called trade wars and whatever. It really is good to see, and credit where credit is due, the Prime Minister has come up with some form of in my opinion pretty reasonable, pretty viable alternative. "Hey why try to get into these camps where “I'm in the BRICS and I'm in the OECD”. Why don't we just all agree "hey here in the Pacific we are interested in free trade that's mutually beneficial to everyone." It's also interesting I think, as I've done videos in the past on the development of mBridge and these new protocols that they are trying to put in place to create alternatives for trade with regard to processing platforms, essentially Payment Processing platforms in an international trade context. Again, how that factors in with regard to APEC will be interesting to see but at the end of the day, again mutually beneficial trade would be good and mutually beneficial trade that doesn't get us into this teamsmanship if you will out in this region, I think would be better than what we have seen shaping up to this point. So tip of the hat to the Prime Minister. I think this was a good idea.