Thailand Rules Out Fully Owned SpaceX Venture in US Trade Talks
(Bloomberg) -- Thailand won’t allow US firms to establish fully foreign-owned satellite telecoms as part of trade talks with the Trump administration, resisting such investments in the sector over sovereignty issues, said the country’s vice commerce minister.
The topic will be on the agenda when trade talks with Washington resume near the end of this month, Thailand Vice Commerce Minister Kirida Bhaopichitr said in an interview.
“There’s only one sector I think we actually would not want them to invest, which is the low-orbit telecommunication service,” she said. “That’s a sovereign issue. Basically, there’s only one company in the US that really wants this, which is SpaceX.”
The US Trade Representative and SpaceX didn’t respond to separate requests for comment.
Elon Musk’s satellite, space and artificial intelligence company, which went public in June, has been seeking greater access to offer Starlink satellite internet services in Thailand, where restrictions limit foreign ownership to 49% of some telecommunications infrastructure.
Thailand is committed to buying more American airplanes, liquefied natural gas, soybeans and corn, Kirida said. The country will also reduce tariffs to zero and accept US standards for imports of beef, lamb and alcohol. However, it won’t grant the same treatment for US pork, she said.
Bangkok’s main goal with US trade talks is to keep total tariffs below the 19% rate it agreed to last year, she said, which it had before a US Supreme Court ruling overturned President Donald Trump’s trade playbook.
To restore Trump’s tariff leverage, the USTR has opened multiple so-called Section 301 investigations on what it considered unfair trade practices.
Thailand is already subject to a 12.5% tariff under a USTR ruling that hit 60 countries for not taking adequate steps to limit the trade of good produced using forced labor. It’s also subject to a separate ongoing investigation into excess production capacity.
Thailand late last year rejected a SpaceX proposal to establish a 100% foreign-owned subsidiary, The Nation newspaper reported in November, citing Digital Economy Minister Chaichanok Chidchob.
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
