NOTE :
THIS NEWS ITEM IS DESIGNED TO HELP THE PUBLIC UNDERSTAND DEVELOPMENTS IN
THE WTO. WHILE EVERY EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO ENSURE THE CONTENTS ARE
ACCURATE, IT DOES NOT PREJUDICE MEMBER GOVERNMENTS' POSITIONS.
Australian Ambassador Bruce Gosper, who chairs the working party, described
the meeting as 損roductive and businesslike? He said: 揑 think we have made
good progress at this meeting although I recognize that there are still
areas where further work is needed. With hard work, flexibility and goodwill
on all sides, I believe this [least-developed country] accession has the
potential to accelerate.?
Thirty WTO members are in Laos抯 working party (57 if the EU抯 member states
are also counted). WTO members are free to choose whether to participate in
the working party.
EARLY STAGES STILL. The talks are still in their early stages. The working
party抯 discussions are now based on a 揻actual summary of points raised? a
preliminary document that still has to evolve through some more stages
before it can become the 揹raft working party report??which goes beyond
the facts and includes draft commitments ?and eventually the final
agreement.
As a least-developed country (LDC), Laos抯 application is covered by the
2002 General Council guidelines for accelerating membership negotiations
(document WT/L/508). Laos is also land-locked. In order to support
the negotiation, Laos is receiving technical assistance from other WTO
members. Laos thanked them for this and called for more.
Since the last meeting in November 2007, Laos has improved its
market-opening offers on goods and services. The countries interested in
negotiating market access bilaterally with Laos said the revised offers will
be useful for the bilateral talks. These countries include: Australia,
Canada, Chinese Taipei, the EU, India, Japan and the US. (WTO membership
agreements require bilateral agreements to be 搈ultilateralized? ie,
whatever Laos agrees bilaterally would have to apply to all WTO members.)
Laos ?officially the Lao People抯 Democratic Republic (PDR) ?搒eeks to use
its WTO accession as a way to hasten economic integration while fostering
real social development,?Laotian Industry and Commerce Minister Nam
Viyaketh said.
揟his is key to achieving successful negotiations that are also viable and
legitimate domestically. In this respect, my concern at this stage is not on
improving our market access offers for the sake of playing with the numbers.
揜ather, it is in the well-understood interest of Lao PDR and the world
community that we take commitments we can and will implement and continue in
our process of reform rather than to agree to commitments which both you and
we know we will not be able to adhere to.?br>
LAWS, REGULATIONS, TRANSITION PERIODS. Laos also reported on a range of new
laws and regulations adopted in order to meet WTO requirements (see details).
揥e have been working very hard to seize on the good will and enthusiasm
members have shown in Lao PDR抯 accession,?Dr Nam said. 揟o achieve
progress, Lao PDR has been working hard in bringing related laws and
regulations in line with WTO requirements.?
Revisions in the pipeline include reducing the range of goods subject to
price controls, import and export prohibitions and licensing.
Other issues being studied or where further work is required include trading
rights, customs valuation, rules of origin, subsidies, sanitary and
phytosanitary measures (i.e. food safety, animal and plant health),
technical barriers to trade (i.e. product standards, labelling, etc),
investment measures and intellectual property.
Laos has asked to be allowed transition periods so that it has longer to
implement WTO agreements in some areas such as customs valuation, sanitary-phytosanitary
measures, technical barriers to trade, investment and intellectual property.
These could be discussed at the next meeting. No date was set but the
Chairman (Ambassador Gosper) suggested that it may be held in the first half
of 2009.
揑 would urge Laos to keep the Working Party regularly informed of
legislative developments in Vientiane by submitting translated copies of all
WTO-related legislation, including laws enacted recently,?the chairperson
said.
揑 would also request Lao PDR to update and revise its Legislative Action
Plan(s) before the next meeting. This would enable us to track the process
of implementing and enforcing a WTO-consistent trade regime in Lao PDR. In
this context, I should underscore the critical importance of technical
assistance for Lao PDR which, as an LDC [least-developed country], faces
particular challenges and capacity constraints. I would urge all TA
[technical assistance] providers to continue and, where possible, step up
this much needed support.?/p>
Next
No date set. Could be in the first half of 2009. Based on the inputs from Laos, the Secretariat will again revise the 揻actual summary of points raised?
Background
WORKING PARTY MEMBERS (according to the latest official list, but regularly
updated): Australia, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, China,
Dominican Republic, European Union, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong China, India,
Japan, Rep. of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand,
Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei,
Thailand, United States, Viet Nam, Zambia
CHAIRPERSON: Ambassador Bruce Gosper of Australia
Lao People抯 Democratic Republic applied to join the WTO on 16 July 1997.
The General Council agreed to set up a working party on 19 February 1998.
The working party met on 28 October 2004, 30 November 2006, 15 November 2007
and 4 July 2008.
Statement by H.E. Dr Nam Viyaketh,
Minister of Industry and Commerce, Laos
at the 4th Session of the Working Party on the Accession of Laos to the WTO
4 July 2008, Geneva, Switzerland
Mr Chairman
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great honour for me and the Lao delegation to take part in this
Fourth Working Party meeting. On behalf of the Lao Government, please allow
me to express our profound gratitude to you, Mr Chairman, as well as the
Accession Division for preparing and providing support to this Working Party
to further move the accession process of Lao PDR.
As it is the 4th of July, I also wish to congratulate the delegation of the
United States of America and wish them a very happy national day.
Before providing an overview on our achievements since the last Working
Party, I am pleased to highlight that the Lao PDR抯 development strategy is
underpinned by its 6th Five-Year National Socio-Economic Development Plan
for 2006-2010, which is built upon a broad-based growth and pro-poor policy
in four pillars: i) human-development-driven economic growth; ii)
competitiveness, trade and regional integration; iii) social development and
focused poverty reduction interventions; and iv) good governance.
Mr Chairman,
As you suggested in your concluding remarks at the end of the Third Working
Party meeting, Mr Chairman, we have been working very hard to seize on the
good will and enthusiasm Members have shown in Lao PDR抯 accession. To
achieve progress, Lao PDR has been working hard in bringing related laws and
regulations in line with WTO requirements. Allow me to draw your attention
to our achievements since the last Working Party meeting in November 2007,
in particular:
The Standards Law was promulgated in early 2008 which incorporates key principles of the TBT Agreement in the areas of technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment.
The Law on Intellectual Property was also enacted, covering copyrights and industrial property. It incorporates the WIPO model law and incorporates key provisions of the TRIPS Agreement.
An implementing decree of the Customs Law was adopted outlining customs valuation methods and other key provisions under the CVA.
A progress has been made to implement the Enterprise Law.
To facilitate cross-border trade, the Government of Lao PDR reduced the number of agencies represented at border check points to 3 agencies namely immigration, customs and quarantine.
The Government is now in the formal process of acceptance of Article VIII of the IMF which would formally recognize what is already done in practice ? open current account foreign transactions.
Improvements occurred in the banking system including the passage of the Commercial Bank Law, strengthening bank supervision, reductions in non-performing loans, and preparation of a financial sector strategy.
The centralization of treasury, customs and tax administration has commenced, including the work on a new revenue sharing mechanism and piloting centralization in some pilot provinces. Implementation of the revised Chart of Accounts has progressed well.
Technical assistance, including on trade related, are being elaborated with development partners and implemented under the Integrated Framework, including under Window II and the Trade Development Facility (Multi-donors Trust Fund). The aim is to mainstream trade into the national development agenda. Further assistances are taking momentum through the Enhanced Integrated Framework and Aid for Trade.
That foresaid progress has marked an important milestone in the Government抯
efforts at economic integration to create an enabling business environment
and enhance competitiveness in addition to earlier enactments of laws and
regulations in the fields of value added tax, budget, accounting, audit,
labour, enterprise and customs. Forthcoming laws and regulations planned to
be adopted or amended in the near term include regulations on import and
export licensing procedures, pricing policies, foreign exchange as well as
laws on investment and veterinary. These, in a nutshell, aim at ensuring
non-discrimination, predictability and transparency as underpinned by the
WTO principles.
Mr Chairman,
Lao PDR抯 economic outlook remains favourable, with continued strong growth.
GDP growth remained at above 7 percent in 2007. Output expanded in mining,
hydropower, emerging processing industries, agriculture, tourism and other
services. Lao PDR has also benefited from increased demand for its exports
and large FDI inflows from neighbouring countries as it is surrounded by
some of the fastest growing economies in the world.
In addition, despite the fairly stable macroeconomic situation, one cannot
underestimate the effect that may cause the risk of rising inflation due to
global fuel and food price crisis. After falling to a record low level of
4.5 percent in 2007, overall inflation climbed to 6.4 percent in February
2008. These facts underline the economic vulnerability of the Lao
population, and it is our job to ensure that our WTO accession is both
perceived and in reality, improves their lives.
Nevertheless, Lao PDR is still facing formidable challenges in terms of its
narrow production and export base. Until recently, key merchandise exports
were reliant on agriculture and garments. In addition, Lao PDR is also faced
with important human resource constraints. We do recognize that the capacity
building and sufficient flexibilities are key factors to assist Lao PDR to
bring its customs valuation, sanitary and phytosanitary, technical barriers
to trade, trade related intellectual property rights and trade related
investment measures in compliance with WTO requirements. At the same time,
we have to proceed with our reforms with a view to ensuring that our
national development objectives are maintained. Therefore, Lao PDR obviously
needs time, technical and financial assistance from Members to help us on
this effort.
Mr Chairman,
Let me turn now to market access. In agriculture, we have revised in a
substantive manner our initial offer and made deep cuts in a wide range of
agricultural products of interest to our trading partners. The average
tariff for agricultural products has been reduced to 39%. In NAMA, we have
again reviewed and made further cuts in the offer, tailored to the specific
requests that we received. The average tariff for industrial products is
about 26%. We believe that these substantial revisions propose a level of
liberalization that has been offered by other recently acceded LDC Members,
and well below the average tariffs of WTO Members at a similar stage of
development. We hope that this offer will allow us to conclude goods market
access negotiations in the very near future.
As for services, we have doubled the number of sub-sectors contained in the
offer, which now total some 56 sub-sectors. We are working very hard ?
together with parties concerned on scrutinizing our services sectors. We
have held workshops with the help of USAID and the World Bank, which were
very useful and helpful. We also realized how important it is to have the
regulatory framework in place to ensure that liberalization has its intended
efficiency and developmental effects. Unfortunately, these are often
non-existent in Lao PDR and our professional knowledge and institutional
capacity in these complex fields are very small.
As Lao PDR is formally a participant in the Doha Development Agenda, Mr
Chairman, please allow me to draw a few comparisons with those negotiations.
Chairman Stephenson in his draft modalities proposes that LDCs be exempt
from any tariff reductions, and that their 揷ontribution?include a
substantial increase in their level of tariff binding to the extent possible
within their individual development needs. Lao PDR proposes in its offer to
bind 100% of its tariff lines at a low ad valorem level. Chairman Crawford
in his draft modalities proposes that the market access text on NAMA be
applicable LDCs, too. Again, Lao PDR proposes to bind 100% of its tariff
bindings at a low level, except for a few of our most sensitive products for
which a higher tariff is required. For domestic support, all of Lao PDR抯
support is well within de minimus levels. Finally on services, Ministers at
Hong Kong noted that LDCs should not be expected to undertake new
commitments in the DDA. Nonetheless, Lao PDR has tabled a new offer with
twice the average commitments by LDC Members.
If I draw some general comparisons, Mr Chairman, it is not to say 搕his is
the end of the road? On the contrary, Lao PDR seeks to use its WTO
accession as a way to hasten economic integration while fostering real
social development. This is key to achieving successful negotiations that
are also viable and legitimate domestically. In this respect, my concern at
this stage is not on improving our market access offers for the sake of
playing with the numbers. Rather, it is in the well-understood interest of
Lao PDR and the world community that we take commitments we can and will
implement and continue in our process of reform rather than to agree to
commitments which both you and we know we will not be able to adhere to.
We have had meetings this week with 8 delegations, including one in this
afternoon, and our discussions have been open and productive, and I wish to
thank these delegations for their interest and understanding of our economic
and social development strategies.
Mr Chairman,
As you have seen Lao PDR is committed to integrate into the world economy
and to become an active Member of the WTO. The speed and depth of our
liberalization efforts ?as well as their sequencing ?need to be adapted to
both the capacity of our economy to change and our human resources and
institutional capacities. We urge WTO Members to base their final requests
on the needs of our country rather than on theoretical and/or systemic
requests. All we ask is to be able to make commitments in line with our
developmental needs and sequence them according to our capacities. In this
spirit, we hope to conduct the final part of our negotiations thereby
assuming that we have a solid roadmap for our continued effort to reform our
economy.
At last but not least, on the behalf of Lao delegations and government of
Lao PDR, please allow me to thank and acknowledge the valuable support and
contribution from WTO secretariats and Members as well as our development
partners. We believe under continuous support and contribution, the WTO
accession of Lao PDR will not be in the far sight.
Thank you for your attention.
?
accession: becoming a member of the WTO, signing on to its
agreements. New members have to negotiate terms:
?bilaterally with individual WTO members
?multilaterally, (1) to convert the results of the bilateral
negotiations so that they apply to all WTO members, and (2) on
required legislation and institutional reforms that are need
to meet WTO obligations
?binding: commitment not to increase a rate of duty
beyond an agreed level. Once a rate of duty is bound, it may
not be raised without compensating the affected parties.
?b> sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures: measures
dealing with food safety
and animal and plant health:
?sanitary: for human and animal health.
?phytosanitary: for plants and plant products
?technical barriers to trade (TBT): regulations,
standards, testing and certification procedures, which could
obstruct trade. The WTO抯 TBT Agreement aims to ensure
that these do not create unnecessary obstacles
?b> working party (accession): group of WTO members
negotiating multilaterally with a country applying to join
with the WTO.
?working party report (accession): final document
passed on to the General Council for approval, covering the
applicant country抯 commitments on opening its markets and on
applying WTO rules.
> More jargon: glossary
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