Vietnam, Laos agree on preferential tariff

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam and Laos signed an agreement detailing the items of
import goods that will enjoy preferential tax treatment in 2009 and the following
years in a bid to achieve their set trade target of 1 billion USD in 2010.

The agreement was inked by Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang
and his Lao counterpart Nam Viyaketh in Hanoi on January 17.

Under the agreement, Vietnam will grant zero tax rate to additional 16 items of
Lao commodities belonging to the groups of car and motorbike engines and components.

Vietnam , particularly, will give preferential quota to its import of commodities
with Lao origin, including cigarette and tobacco blades (3,000 tonnes per year)
and rice (40,000 tonnes a year).

Meanwhile, Laos will levy the tax rate of zero on an additional 87 items of
Vietnamese commodities that are from the groups of vegetable raw materials,
processed fruit, cigarette, apparel, motorbike, and home furniture.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade estimated that the two countries' import-export
value reached 450 million USD in 2008, a surge of around 44 percent over 2007.

In the year, Vietnam earned an export value of 136.4 million USD, mainly from
apparel, coal, electric wire and electric cable, and plastic products, representing
a year on year rise of 41.7 percent.

It imported from the neighbouring country 259 million USD worth in metal, timber and
wooden products, assembled cars, and tobacco, an increase of 34.2 percent year on
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