Transcript of the above video: 

I have got to be honest with you, something at the forefront of my mind at this particular moment as an American-born Thai, is the upcoming possible meeting between Trump and Anutin, especially as it may pertain to the current border situation. Now personally I view the entire border matter between Cambodia and Thailand as purely a bilateral thing but I do understand that somebody has to act as facilitator for discussions. It's my understanding, Malaysia is acting in that capacity as they are the current Chair of ASEAN and they are trying to facilitate this sit down between Thailand and Cambodia to basically hammer out an agreement regarding the Border. Presumably I would like to see the Border peacefully reopen so we could see trade between the two countries again and get on with it, see a de-escalation from the late unpleasantness if you will to borrow a phrase from the movie Ronin with Robert de Niro, but yeah, I would very much like to see us de-escalate, and get back to doing business because that is what's Southeast Asia does best. 

Now on top of Malaysia acting as the facilitator if you will, it seems Trump is kind of involved in a mediatory capacity maybe acting as something akin to an arbiter, just sort of trying to facilitate further peace, let's put it that way. And look, I think genuinely Mr. Trump's objective is peace. Look, he's not an overly belligerent, warlike President. If you go back to the sort of history of the phraseology of American politics you can get into Hawks and Doves, I think Mr. Trump is much more of a Dove; I think he genuinely does not like war.

That being said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Thai PBS World that is thaipbs.or.th, the article is titled: Trump might see a signing ceremony but not a lasting peace. Quoting directly: "U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to reside over the signing of the ceasefire pact between Thailand and Cambodia when he attends the ASEAN summit later this month, but beyond the optics of a ceremony, a lasting peace between the two Southeast Asian neighbours remains elusive. "How could I comment on that? It's a security matter", Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul responded when asked about Trump's plan to preside over the event. Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said earlier that there had been a proposal for the United States and Malaysia to act as facilitators in overseeing a ceasefire agreement that will be called the Kuala Lumpur Declaration or the Kuala Lumpur Accord." 

So my point is in all of this with regard to this video, I don't want to get into the substance of what they are going to get to in this proposed Kuala Lumpur Accord. My question is will Mr. Trump be talking to Mr. Anutin possibly about the threats to National Security that is not possibly occurring in such a clear way? And that is the threat to National, excuse me not security, but National Sovereignty as posed by the OECD itself, as Mr. Trump has himself noted in a prior Executive Order dated earlier this year in 2025, and the name of that Executive Order is, it’s a Memorandum for the Secretary of the Treasury. I'll put this on screen. Subject: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Global Tax Deal. Now I talked about this at length over the course of the last year. There was this attempt under Yellen to have this sort of notion of a Global Minimum Tax. It was all done through this colour of law, "oh we are exploring the option of signing on to this Agreement", and then they just start doing things even though they really don't have the legal authority for it and Trump affirmatively rejected this and that's where it currently stands. Quoting directly from this: "The OECD Global Tax Deal supported under the prior Administration not only allows extra territorial jurisdiction over American Income but also limits our Nation's ability to enact tax policies that serve the interest of American businesses and workers." My hope is that perhaps during their possible conversations between Mr. Trump and Mr. Anutin, this might come up and Trump might mention to Mr. Anutin that, "hey this extra territorial jurisdiction created by OECD could be over possible Thai income, in the same way that he notes that it was a problem for American Income and that that is not good for Thailand. That said, quoting further: "Because of the Global Tax Deal and other discriminatory foreign tax practices, American companies may face retaliatory international tax regimes if the United States does not comply with foreign tax policy objectives." Yeah, it puts the impetus on the US as if it is somehow incumbent upon the US as a nation to comply with this stuff, and I don't see where it does. And again, it shouldn't be imposed upon Thailand either. Quoting further: "This Memorandum recaptures our Nation's sovereignty and economic competitiveness by clarifying that the Global Tax Deal has no force or effect in the United States." I am hoping those two have a discussion and perhaps we see Anutin come back and we see some further definitive pushback against this OECD because again, I don't think this is good for Thailand either, for the same reasons that Mr. Trump, through his Executive Order, articulated for the American people. Quoting further: "Options for Protection from Discriminatory and Extraterritorial Tax Measures. The Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with the United States Trade Representative shall investigate whether any foreign countries are not in compliance with any Tax Treaty with the United States or have any tax rules in place, or are likely to put tax rules in place, that are extra territorial or disproportionately affect American companies." 

I discussed in a prior video the terms of the US-Thai Treaty of Amity, ratified in 1966, which specifically speaks to the issue of attribution of tax and the territorial jurisdictions, the parties thereto. For those who are interested in that, I'll put a link in the description below. That being said, quoting further: " and develop and present to the President through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, a list of options for protective measures or other actions that the United States should adopt or take in response to such non-compliance or tax rules." And frankly, I think Thailand should be assessing Thailand's position whether or not we are getting the best deal vis-a-vis these foreign interests as it pertains to tax policy here in Thailand and what they would like imposed per the possible promulgation of law on the OECD because I am not sure that this is in Thailand's interest for the exact same reasons Mr. Trump elucidates it's not in American interests in his own Executive Memorandum to the Secretary of the Treasury. That said, quoting further: " The Secretary of the Treasury shall deliver findings and recommendations to the President through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, within 60 days." 

Now again, I would be very curious to know if Mr. Trump and Mr. Anutin have discussions regarding the OECD if only in an off-handed way, insofar as I love it to hear that Trump made some flippant remark about the OECD to Anutin that is like "hey, you have got to get out from under that," you know how Trump makes the snarky remarks that he makes; at this point, it is kind of his like calling card the way that "I'll be back", was Arnold Schwarzenegger's calling card in The Terminator. 

My point with this video is one, I think it's very good to be seeing positive steps in the direction of ceasefire and the possible reopening the borders, safely and in line with everyone's national interest along the Thai Khmer border, but also I want to see Thailand's National Sovereignty strengthened, maintained, bolstered into the future and I think Trump's position with regard to OECD very much did that for America, and I'm very thankful to Mr. Trump on a real level. Look credit where credit is due. I don't agree with him or his Administration on every little thing that they do, but on this Executive Order I completely agree with it. It was absolutely in America's interest to affirmatively reject the OECD. I hope that comes up in conversation in any possible future meeting between Mr. Trump, President of the United States, and Mr. Anutin, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand.