At the regional level, Thailand is a member of ASEAN and is therefore part of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement with China, Korea, India, Australia/New Zealand and the EU. It is also part of BIMSTEC and was, at least under Thaksin, the protagonist who committed to strengthening trade and investment integration in the Mekong region under ACMECS, a framework for cooperation between Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. [i] Trade Statistics, The Department of Trade Negotiation: www.dtn.go.th/images/89/Trade/traderank1258.pdf With regard to technical barriers to trade, Thailand is an active participant in standard international and regional organizations such as the International Organization for Standardization, the Pacific Area Standards Congress and the ASEAN Advisory Committee on Standards and Quality. While Thailand has concluded several plurilateral mutual recognition agreements, the ASEAN Agreement on Trade in Goods concluded by ASEAN countries obliges members to apply technical rules in order to facilitate the implementation of all ASEAN sectoral mutual recognition agreements (World Bank 2011). In addition, as a major exporter of agricultural and fishery products, sanitary and phytosanitary issues are of major importance to Thailand. It generally follows the standards of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Codex Alimentarius and the International Plant Protection Agreement. However, it has also been reported that animal health standards are sometimes stricter than those set by the OIE. (WTO 2011). . .