Evaluation of International Ports in Thailand through Trade Facilitation Indices from Freight Forwarders

Abstract

This manuscript presents the evaluation of international ports in Thailand in terms of trade facilitation from the viewpoints of freight forwarders through the development of trade facilitation indices. The indices in this study are separated into imports and exports and were applied to evaluate seven multi-user ports for existing and future scenarios. Four main components of indices are 1) port infrastructure, 2) port management, 3) customs procedures, and 4) transparency in customs law enforcement. The weights of each main component and subcomponent are calculated by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique on questionnaires collected from 42 freight forwarder companies in Thailand. In the questionnaire, freight forwarders are asked to rank the importance of each component towards trade facilitation as well as to comment existing trade facilitation at each port. The results show that customs procedures are the most important component in trade facilitation and that most ports in Thailand just pass current expectation of freight forwarders and need some improvements to facilitate the future freight demand according to the implementation of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) agreements in late 2015. Subsequently, the indices are further estimated for future scenarios to show the level of trade facilitation if port infrastructure and customs procedures are improved according to the proposed development plans, or if AEC agreements are fully employed. These indices can point out trade facilitation components that would be upgraded and lead to recommendations for port-related stakeholders for better trade facilitation of Thai ports to serve the ASEAN Economic Community.