DPI Champasak province

Laos aims to join the WTO. The country is a member of ASEAN and signed the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) in 1998. Laos is strongly involved in regional economic cooperation initiatives with neighbouring countries such as the Emerald triangle cooperation for tourism and the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS). ACMECS stands for trade & investment facilitation, agriculture and industry cooperation and improvement of transport linkages among other priority cooperation areas. The country benefits from the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) for exports to the EU, Japan and Australia and a bilateral trade agreement with the US.