When a shipment arrives or leaves Thailand, importers or exporters are required to file a goods Declaration with supporting documents to the Customs for cargo clearance. To speed up and facilitate the flow and movement of legitimate cargo, the Customs Department provides two clearance systems: manual and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
New vehicles of all types not yet registered abroad are allowed to be imported without applying for an import permit from the Ministry of Commerce. However, for the vehicles with the weight less than 3500 Kgs., an importer needs to obtain an import permit from the Industrial Standard Institute, telephone number 02-2023331.
Used/secondhand vehicles need to obtain an import permit from the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, telephone 02-5474804. For the vehicles with the weight less than 3500 Kgs., an importer needs to obtain an import permit from the Industrial Standard Institute as well.