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As the title of this video suggests, we are talking about the US-Thai Treaty of Amity. For those who are unaware, under the terms of the US-Thai Treaty of Amity, American Companies and American individuals can set up operations here in Thailand notwithstanding the terms of the Foreign Business Act and they can certify their Company in such a way that they can own 100% of it. A non-American national or virtually any other foreign National here in Thailand has to set up under the provisions of the Foreign Business Act and generally speaking unless they are seeking a Foreign Business License, some sort of specialized BOI concession or even Eastern Economic Corridor concession, they are just setting up a normal SME, a normal small business. Most cases you see folks just decide to go ahead and do a 49/51% split between a Thai National and a foreign national. But it is possible for Americans under the National Treatment Section of the US-Thai Treaty of Amity to go ahead and once that Company is certified they can own their companies 100%. Americans can own a Company in Thailand 100% under the Treaty of Amity. There are still some restrictions under the Treaty; it is not a free for all, there are certain things that are still restricted to Thai Nationals only but the Treaty can be very beneficial for many people who are looking to do business here in Thailand, many Americans which then poses the question we will sometimes get from folks who are not Americans but they will say "well I will form a Company in America and then have it own the Company in Thailand." Well I am here to tell you the Ministry of Commerce here in Thailand who ultimately is in charge of issuing Amity certifications, they sort of pierce the ownership veil if you will and want to see who the actual, what we might call the "beneficial owner" is of that underlying corporation. If that, to use the term "beneficial owner" is in fact a non-American national, let's say just a single person LLC in America and the person that owns it, the member manager if you will, that person they are a French national, let’s throw it out, whatever nationality, they are a non-American National. When you are dealing with your Certification, they are going to find that out and when they do they are going to say “well for purposes of the Treaty that is not an American Company, that is just a corporation incorporated in America.” I have seen this happen; I have seen them make an issue of this and it can be a real problem.

So something to really understand with respect to this is it really is a bilateral relationship. They are looking at whether or not it is Americans doing business in Thailand because under the terms of the Treaty, they are the ones who are granted the national treatment. So for that reason, there is this kind of deep due diligence that is done when going into the Certification process for an Amity Treaty Company.