Thailand’s traditional alcoholic beverages have been developed for centuries and their growth potential has been recognized in the global market. Several indigenous alcoholic beverage brands have received international recognition and are sold globally. This has continued even though Thailand’s manufacturing of alcoholic beverages-related laws (the “Laws”) are very restrictive. Such limitations include (but are not limited to) minimum capital and minimum production capacity requirements. Due to these restrictions, the majority of Thai small players have decided to proceed with the manufacturing of their alcoholic beverages outside of Thailand.  Back in 2019, the Move Forward Party, a political party in Thailand, proposed the Progressive Liquor Bill (the “Bill”), which was aimed at loosening the limitations under the Laws that favor existing players and has spent the past three years campaigning for the Bill to come into effect. On November 1, 2022, the Ministry of Finance issued the Ministerial Regulation on the Manufacturing of Alcoholic Beverages, B.E. 2565 (2022) (the “New Regulation”), which came into effect on the following day, to replace the previous ministerial regulations. Following that, the Bill was put to the vote but was rejected on November 2, 2022. The main reasons given by the government for such rejection were concerns about bootlegging, sanitation, and health hazards to consumers that may arise from non-standard production processes, despite the fact that hygiene falls directly under the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Industry, and other governmental organizations. It would appear that the New Regulation is designed only to relax (but not liberalize) legal or regulatory requirements and restrictions to enable small players who has limited capital...