LAO22-1

Lao PDR joined the ITA and ITA Expansion agreements in early 2022, and became the first LDC to join both agreements at the same time. This national TA activity was organized upon the authority's request to familiarize Lao officials with the agreements. Considering that many officials of different Lao ministries are not familiar with the WTO, after consulting with the authority, we agreed to start with basic WTO principles and establish linkage between tariff negotiations and specific commitments under the ITA and ITA Expansion. The workshop intends to achieve the following objectives: (1) Presenting the ITA and ITA Expansion agreements in detail so that participants have a better understanding of the commitments undertaken and how to implement them; (2) Introducing WTO principles and tariff negotiating history to establish good understanding of sectoral and plurilateral agreements; (3) Highlighting the benefits of joining ITA and its implication for Laos to integrate in global IT value chain. Fifty officials as well as a number of representatives of IT industry from Laos are expected to attend.