What Laos buys, and from whom.
Laos imported USD 6.6bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, up 1 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 2 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.
Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.
The twenty countries Laos imports most from.
A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what Laos is best placed to make itself, see Made here: Laos.
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1
China
Share of Laos's imports47 per centChangeup 38 per cent on 2022USD 3.1bnin 2024 -
2
Thailand
Share of Laos's imports45 per centChangeup 8 per cent on 2022USD 2.9bnin 2024 -
3
South Korea
Share of Laos's imports2 per centChangeup 32 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 101min 2024 -
4
Japan
Share of Laos's imports1 per centChangedown 38 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 89min 2024 -
5
Taiwan
Share of Laos's imports1 per centChangeup 97 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 37min 2024 -
6
Germany
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangedown 29 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 28min 2024 -
7
Australia
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangedown 62 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 18min 2024 -
8
Hungary
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangeup 104 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 18min 2024 -
9
Cambodia
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangeup 126 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 16min 2024 -
10
Indonesia
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangedown 69 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 12min 2024 -
11
India
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangedown 54 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 12min 2024 -
12
Malaysia
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangedown 95 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 11min 2024 -
13
United States
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangedown 85 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 11min 2024 -
14
Canada
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangeup 24 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 11min 2024 -
15
France
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangedown 74 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 10min 2024 -
16
Belgium
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangeup 69 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 7min 2024 -
17
Italy
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangedown 59 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 7min 2024 -
18
Netherlands
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangedown 19 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 6min 2024 -
19
Switzerland
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangedown 39 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 5min 2024 -
20
United Kingdom
Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per centChangedown 80 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 4min 2024
What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.
Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.
Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to Laos with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.
Share is China's part of everything Laos imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.
Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.
A record of trade, not a shopping list.
What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.
Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.