The SPS Agreement
In the application of SPS measures, Lao PDR seeks to comply with the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement).
The SPS Agreement is designed to ensure that food supplied to consumers is safe to eat and that plant and animal life is not threatened by diseases or pests that may inadvertently be brought into the country.
The SPS Agreement allows countries to set their own standards as long as these are based on a scientific method and as long as they are not set arbitrarily in order to discriminate against products imported from another country.
The agreement includes provisions on control, inspection and approval procedures. According to the Agreement, governments must provide advance notice of new or changed sanitary and phytosanitary regulations. Any new measures or changes in the control, inspections and approval procedures will be published well ahead of their effective date in the Announcements section of this website.
The SPS measures being implemented in Lao PDR, as well as the commodities to which these apply, are listed in this website. Click here to view a full and up-to-date list of current SPS measures.
The SPS Agreement requires WTO members to establish an Enquiry Point to answers questions relating to SPS measures from other members. Information about the SPS Enquiry Point for Lao PDR can be found here.
Further information about SPS can be found on the WTO website. Click here to view the text of the SPS Agreement. The WTO website also provides access to the SPS Information Management System which contains all documents and records relevant to the SPS Agreement.
An explanatory booklet about the SPS Agreement can be downloaded from here.
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