The meeting on the study of import license related to 04 departments, for instance, Food and Drug Department, Department of Standard and Methodology, Department of Agriculture, Department of Livestock and Fisheries, the meeting was held on August 28-29, 2018 and chaired by Mr. Soulinhon Philavong, Director General of Department of Import and Export (DIMEX). The study found that current NTMs (Non-Tariff Measures) to help reduce the risks, not entirely effective due to unlicensed imports still enter Lao PDR, and time of the issuance of the import license is 03 days on average. Therefore, a license imposes significant costs on businesses; both in fees, time and labor costs, and goods were stuck at checkpoints due to the delayed inspection of documents.
Mr. Soulinhon Philavong stated that in 2019, DIMEX is as an office of Trade Facilitation Secretariat, together with concerned sectors shall reduce and improve at least 50% for the procedures, timeframe, costs and unnecessary documents on the import and export license.
If import permits are abolished, entrepreneurs are able to minimize their cost approximately 385 million Kip per year. The reduction of the frequency of the annual quality certificate could save importers a few days’ works per year (but no fee reduction). Average savings in time and cost per import shipment of around 30 to 60 minutes and 35,000 kip directly from no import license. Per shipment savings of 25,000 LAK and 1 hour at the border from no longer testing at the border. Equates to total annual savings of 241 million LAK and 360 days. Moreover, Lower compliance costs should encourage more legal imports, improving trade statistics and more accurate data collection.
Concerned sectors have shared their comments in the meeting, for instance, improve business certainty & governmental transparency, resulting in the improvement in Lao PDR’s international competitive rankings and ease of doing business rankings, particularly “Trading across Border” indicator.
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