Trade lanes

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.

By source

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.

  1. 1

    China

    Share of Laos's imports47 per cent
    Changeup 38 per cent on 2022
    USD 3.1bnin 2024
  2. 2

    Thailand

    Share of Laos's imports45 per cent
    Changeup 8 per cent on 2022
    USD 2.9bnin 2024
  3. 3

    South Korea

    Share of Laos's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 32 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 101min 2024
  4. 4

    Japan

    Share of Laos's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 38 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 89min 2024
  5. 5

    Taiwan

    Share of Laos's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 97 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 37min 2024
  6. 6

    Germany

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 29 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 28min 2024
  7. 7

    Australia

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 62 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 18min 2024
  8. 8

    Hungary

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changeup 104 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 18min 2024
  9. 9

    Cambodia

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changeup 126 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 16min 2024
  10. 10

    Indonesia

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 69 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 12min 2024
  11. 11

    India

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 54 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 12min 2024
  12. 12

    Malaysia

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 95 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 11min 2024
  13. 13

    United States

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 85 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 11min 2024
  14. 14

    Canada

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changeup 24 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 11min 2024
  15. 15

    France

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 74 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 10min 2024
  16. 16

    Belgium

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changeup 69 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 7min 2024
  17. 17

    Italy

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 59 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 7min 2024
  18. 18

    Netherlands

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 19 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 6min 2024
  19. 19

    Switzerland

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 39 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 5min 2024
  20. 20

    United Kingdom

    Share of Laos's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 80 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 4min 2024
What this record says

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.

What it does not say

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.