Laos on brink of WTO membership
Laos on brink of WTO membership
Laos is now on the threshold of joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO), after first applying for membership back in 1997.
The only procedure remaining is the official approval of the 157 existing WTO member countries, which is expected to be given during a meeting of the General Council on October 26.
Officials from the Lao Ministry of Industry and Commerce held a press conference in Vientiane on Tuesday to report on the results of a recent meeting with WTO representatives.
The terms of Laos' WTO membership were agreed to by the countries negotiating with Laos in September 2012, in Geneva, Switzerland.
The working party's 10th meeting informally went through the set of documents covering the details of the accession, and Laos' commitments before the chairperson approved the agreement.
“The timing will allow Laos to meet its objective of being accepted into the WTO prior to hosting the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit in November, even though a few legal formalities still remain before Laos is officially a member,” said Minister of Industry and Commerce, Dr Nam Viyaketh.
He added that during the accession process, Laos has amended and enacted more than 90 pieces of legislation to comply with WTO agreements.
“This process has been long and tedious and very difficult for us. As experienced negotiators, the position of a negotiator is not an easy one. We knew that we were engaged in a difficult exercise of convincing our trade partners of our goodwill, but we face constraints as a least developed country with less bargaining power and a reliance on overseas development assistance,” Dr Nam said.
“We underestimated the difficulty of the negotiations that we would have to undertake internally. Quite frankly, trying to convince our trading partners of Laos' position, only to go home and have to convince our internal partners of the justification of the reforms requested, was one of our most difficult and hardest tasks.”
Laos is committed to “bound” tariffs - effectively maximum rates - that average 18.8 percent for all products, 19.3 percent on average for agricultural products, and 18.7 percent for the rest.
The EU, US, Australia, Japan, Switzerland and Canada praised Laos' commitment to the multilateral trading system and pledged to continue to give technical assistance to Laos after it becomes a member of the global trading body.
In the services sector, Laos has made market access commitments in 10 sectors, covering 79 sub-sectors.
Some of the commitments include complying with rules of origin, pre-shipment inspection, anti-dumping measures, countervailing duty, safeguards, customs valuation, export measures including prohibitions, subsidies, trade-related investment measures, free zones, laws on transit operations, preferential trade under bilateral, regional and other agreements in order to comply with WTO agreements immediately.
WTO rules on trading rights apply from the date of becoming a member, with some exceptions for two years. Some measures must be applied immediately, including import licensing, technical barriers to trade (product standards and labeling) and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (food safety and animal and plant health).
State enterprises which import or export broadly under commercial terms must notify the WTO of their trade details.
Companies and individuals have the right to legal appeal on government administrative actions covered by WTO rules, including those on trade regulations, subsidies, customs, valuation, intellectual property rights and domestic regulation in services.
Government fees and charges for services will be according to WTO agreements, and taxes and other charges on imports will comply with WTO agreements at home and internationally.
vientiane times
