An efficient and transparent regulatoryframework governing international trade is a necessarycondition for countries to realize the benefits ofinternational trade. Over the last decade, Lao PDR has beendeepening its economic ties with the global economy throughthe formal accession to the WTO in 2013. At the regionallevel, the country is committed to be full member of theASEAN Economic Community. These agreements entailed profoundchanges to Lao PDR’s regulatory framework governinginternational trade.This report provides an overview ofthe incidence on NTMs on import flows in Lao PDR before andafter WTO accession and identifies lingering regulatoryhurdles that may still hamper the ability of the country toreap the gains of a deeper integration. Employing detailedand comparable NTM information, this note characterizes thechanges in the trade related regulatory framework in Lao PDRand compares the current scheme with that of other countriesin Asia. The report also combines econometric estimations ofAd-Valorem Equivalents (AVEs) of NTMs with qualitativeinformation collected through fieldwork to identify prioritymeasure to streamline. This report is organized as follows.Section two discusses main conceptual issues and presentsthe data and metrics to examine the role of NTMs in importflows. Section three, describes the trade incidence of NTMsand compares it with similar countries and with thesituation prior to WTO accession. Section four combines aneconometric technique with qualitative information todiscuss the stringency of NTMs. Section five presents someconcluding remarks and provides some recommendation for reform.
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