Perhaps more European investors would view Laos as a fresh and intriguing trade and investment destination if it were connected to the rest of the world through a faster and perhaps cheaper trade route. "may give an alternative trade route to the EU, which might contribute to an increase in commerce with Laos," they said, adding that investments planned to improve the delivery of products by train from Laos to Thailand's ports could assist. "might offer an alternative commercial route to the EU," they said, if only one could get access to Vietnamese ports.

However, the official cautioned that it was too soon to tell how the new railway infrastructure would affect Laos' business with the EU. Given how early we are in the process, this is especially true. The European Union's financial arm, the European Investment Bank, is supporting on the widening of Laos's most vital roadway, National Road 13. When this project is finished, it will make it easier to ship commodities by road to Vietnam's Vung Ang port.

In August, the United States-Asean Business Council reunited in Vientiane for the first time since 2018 to hold a conference including roundtable talks. U.S. Ambassador to Laos Peter M. Haymond has said, "Our goal is to help [Laos] in allowing its firms to succeed." Still, he made the point that "this is a significant opportunity for the government and the private sector to work together to eliminate bottlenecks to investment, boost economic growth, and produce employment possibilities for the modern economy." Leader of the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Oudet Souvannavong acted cagier than usual. A translation of his remarks at the conference reads, "the figures are small, but they are increasing in desirable directions." This referred to the volume of trade and investment between Laos and the United States.

As a member of the European Union's Everything But Arms (EBA) program, Laos is free from paying trade duties and quotas. Team Europe, an EU initiative in Laos, with a goal of increasing trade in deforestation-free coffee, tea, and wood exports by 25 percent between 2021 and 2020. Agricultural exports accounted for 8 percent of total EU exports in 2020.

Notwithstanding this, "Agri-food exports to the EU have considerably benefited from the EBA but appear to be misused," as stated in a March research paper authored by Viengsavang Thipphavong, Bounlert Vanhnalat, Chanhphasouk Vidavong, and Somdeth Bodhisane. It was acknowledged that the cost of transportation was a major impediment to business. The exporters in Laos must foot the bill for the high cost of in-land shipping for their coffee and sugar shipments, which averages $1,500 USD or 15,000,000 kip. Shipping perishable agricultural and food commodities to European Union markets takes around a month.

The paperwork involved in exporting to Western markets, however, is a far greater obstacle. This is because exporting requires extensive paperwork, such as the licenses and inspections that producers, especially those producing agricultural commodities, must provide. The previously quoted research report states that "the usual time for document processes for each export takes between 2 and 7 days, with expenditures ranging from 800,000 to 5,000,000 Kip (80-500 US$) per shipment, depending on the categories of goods and volume." The high expenses of Laos's agri-food export sector are an obvious source of economic strain.

The recently built railways ensure that this won't be changing anytime soon. Economists feel that if the Lao government and the private sector can succeed in lowering the costs of transportation, this may provide some financial respite while they continue working on improving licensing. One might wonder why Laotian businesses would spend the time and resources learning how to provide the documentation that is required by the United States and the European Union when there is little demand from those markets, when it takes additional funds and energy to break into those markets, and when transportation costs are prohibitively high. You may be wondering why Laotian companies would invest the time and resources into learning how to deliver the documents needed by the United States and the European Union. While success with the third obstacle may not guarantee success with the first two, it might serve as motivation to go on.