Laos mulls work for Asean trading and investment opportunity
Laos mulls work for Asean trading and investment opportunity
The Lao government and business community will have to work hard to improve regulations and the quality of products to ease export and compete with other Asean countries say experts.
To facilitate trade and investment between Laos and other Asean member countries, delegations have discussed different ways to reduce trade barriers at the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA) Council Meeting under the 48thAsean Economic Ministers' Meeting and Related Meetings in Vientiane yesterday.
Some of the ways include reducing the rate of tariffs and unnecessary certification inspections as well as more facilitation with goods movement, investment and service by using a single window system, said the Director General of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce's Foreign Trade Policy Department, Dr Laohoua Cheuching, also an Asean senior economic official.
The discussion will help to improve Asean countries trading faster and should directly benefit the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), he said.
After Laos' integration with the Asean Economic Community at the end of last year, the country has abolished more than 8,000 commodity items of the total 9,558 items under the Asean Harmonized Tariffs Nomenclature (AHTN).
Items include seafood, animal products and some processed agriculture products according to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
About 697 items such as vehicles, petrol, drinks and spare parts would be postponed to stop in 2018, while 265 items including unprocessed agriculture products will be reduced 0-5 percent after 2018, a Foreign Trade Policy Department official told Vientiane Times.
This policy is used only in Asean member countries or “D forms” but imported goods from other countries would have to implement the same rules or use other forms depending on cooperation agreements.
Currently, the country is still collecting about 5-40 percent of the tariffs on remaining imported goods from Asean countries.
Despite the country's inclusion in the AEC, it is still not ready to cut all import tariffs from Asean member countries due to those products still being a main source of revenue for socio-economic development.
The country's tariffs will still be abolished before the final date of integration or one market.
Lao officials believe that the results of the AFTA Council Meeting will improve the service systems for trading and investments with Asean member countries.
