MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Laos
Index
Trade policy prior to the introduction of the New
Economic
Mechanism had been highly restrictive, revolving around
the
centralized allocation of goods for export. In 1988,
however, in
line with the New Economic Mechanism, the government began
to
progressively decentralize some of its trade-oriented
responsibilities, including planning and arranging trade
contracts
with foreign suppliers. Trade, controlled by the
ministries of
trade and finance, is conducted by about twenty-four state
trading
companies and some provincial trading companies. Several
measures
promulgated in March 1988 modified trade policy. According
to
Decree 16, the government became the sole exporter through
state
import-export organizations. Under Decree 13, the State
Committee
for Foreign Economic Relations and Trade, provincial
administrative
committees, and municipalities are empowered to supervise
the
management and control of import and export activities.
The decree
also authorizes trade agents at LPDR embassies worldwide
to make
direct trade contacts.
Decree 18 identifies a number of "strategic" goods,
including
coffee, tobacco, wood products (such as timber, sawn wood,
pressed
wood, and rattan), other forestry products (such as
benzoin and
sticklac), and minerals, for which the state has an export
monopoly: in short, all the major export commodities. Only
the
central government's import-export organization, the Lao
ImportExport Company (Société Lao Import-Export), and certain
provincial
and state enterprises are permitted to export these goods
to
fulfill national trade agreements with the nonconvertible
currency
area. All importing units are required to submit plans for
their
trading operations to the State Committee for Foreign
Economic
Relations and Trade in order to formulate the national
importexport plan. However, importers are permitted to trade in
all
commodities not on the strategic or restricted lists.
Under Decree
18, export businesses are permitted to export goods on the
strategic list directly, after national requirements have
been met.
The decree thus considerably liberalizes trade
regulations. The
main reason for the restriction on trade in strategic
goods is that
the government has to plan its supply of export goods to
coincide
with its multiyear trade arrangements with the
nonconvertible
currency area countries. After 1990, however, this issue
was moot
because as the trade volume with these countries dropped
to a
negligible amount.
The import of certain items, including automobiles and
military
vehicles, fertilizers, drugs, and "decadent cultural
products and
pictures," is subject to quotas and other restrictions. In
addition, trade in certain goods is entirely prohibited,
including
poisons, weapons, and other goods related to national
security.
At the end of the 1980s, the authority of the Lao
Import-Export
Company had begun to diminish, because import-export
licenses were
being granted to increasing numbers of private
organizations. By
1991 the national trade company was slated for
privatization.
Data as of July 1994
|
|