-------------- L -------------- LAND-LOCKED DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. See Least Developed Countries; and Transit Zone. LARGE AIRCRAFT SECTOR UNDERSTANDING (LASU). A 1985 agreement between the United States and the European Community providing for minimum terms and conditions for loans or loan guarantees for the support by government export-credit agencies of the export of aircraft of 70 seats or greater (or the equivalent in freight) and their engines and spare components. This agreement was later broadened to cover all size aircraft and supersedes previously existing "Standstill"and "Common Line" understandings covering government export-financing support for such articles. The understanding has since been incorporated as a sectoral annex into the "OECD Arrangement on Guidelines for Officially Supported Export Credits". See also Export Subsidies; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; and Market Access. LASU. See Large Aircraft Sector Understanding. LDCs. See Developing Countries; and Least Developed Countries. LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (LLDCs or LDCs). Some 36 of the world's poorest countries, considered by the United Nations to be the "least developed" of the less developed countries. Most of them are small in terms of area and population, and some are land-locked or small island countries. They are generally characterized by low per capita incomes, literacy levels and medical standards; subsistence agriculture; and a lack of exploitable minerals and competitive industries. Many suffer from aridity, floods, hurricanes and excessive animal and plant pests, and most are situated in the zone 10 to 30 degrees north latitude. These countries have little prospect of rapid economic development in the foreseeable future and are likely to remain heavily dependent upon official development assistance for many years. Most are in Africa, but a few, such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Laos and Nepal, are in Asia. Haiti is the only country in the Western hemisphere classified by the United Nations as "least developed." The abbreviation "LDCs" has increasingly been used in recent years to refer to the least developed countries (although in the 1950s and 1960s the term"less developed countries" was more or less interchangeable with the term "developing countries"). See also Developing Countries; Official Development Assistance; Substantial New Program of Action; and Transit Zone. LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (LDCs). See Developing Countries; and Least Developed Countries. LESS THAN FAIR VALUE. See Anti-Dumping Code; and Dumping. LEVEL OF TRADE ADJUSTMENT (LOT). Adjustment to U.S. sales price in an anti-dumping investigation that compensates for differences in the cost of selling to different commercial levels of trade. See also Dumping; and United States Price. LEVY. To assess or impose a tariff on imported merchandise (when used as a verb), or the charge on imports(when used as a noun). See also Imports; Tariff; and Tax. LIBERAL. When referring to trade policy, "liberal" usually means relatively free of import controls or restraints and/or a preference for reducing existing barriers to trade, often contrasted with the protectionist preference for retaining or raising selected barriers to imports. See also Free Trade; Liberalization; and Protectionism. LIBERALIZATION. Reductions in tariffs and other measures that restrict trade, unilaterally or multilaterally. Trade liberalization has been the objective of all "Rounds" of GATT trade negotiations. See also Codes of Conduct; Free Trade; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; Liberal; Round; and Sensitive Products. LICENSING. The requirement by a country of a formal application for a special permit, usually called a "license," as a prior condition for importing or exporting certain goods. See also Customs and Administrative Entry Procedures; Licensing Code; Non-Tariff Barriers; Prior Deposits; Quantitative Restrictions; and Specific Limitations on Trade. LICENSING CODE. A Tokyo Round code aimed at simplifying import-licensing procedures and at ensuring their fair and equitable application. The code also seeks to improve the transparency of such proceedings by requiring the publication of relevant national laws and regulations. A Committee on Import Licensing, under the aegis of GATT, monitors adherence to the code. See also Codes of Conduct; Licensing; Non-Tariff Barriers; Tokyo Round; Trade Agreements Act of 1979; and Transparency. LINEAR REDUCTION OF TARIFFS. A reduction by a given percentage in all tariffs maintained by countries participating in a "Round" of trade negotiations, with or without "exceptions" for products deemed to be "sensitive." Sometimes called "horizontal reduction of tariffs," "across-the-board reduction of tariffs," or "equal percentage reduction of tariffs." The complexity and implicit limitations in negotiating tariff reductions on an item-by-item basis in the Dillon Round encouraged negotiators to try a "linear reduction" formula during the Kennedy Round. The U.S. Trade Expansion Act of 1962, while not specifying an across-the-board formula for the negotiations, authorized reductions of up to 50 percent on virtually all items in the U.S. tariff schedules, hence permitting a linear application. See also Dillon Round; Harmonization; Item-by-Item Negotiations; Kennedy Round; Sensitive Products; Tariff; and Trade Expansion Act of 1962. LIQUIDATION. This is the point at which the U.S. Customs Services ascertainment of the rate of duty and amount of duty for items imported into the United States becomes final for most purposes. See also Tariff. LIQUID HYDROCARBONS. See Bulk Carrier. LLDCs. See Least Developed Countries. LOAN. The borrowing of a sum of money by a person, company, government or other organization. See also Interest; International Monetary Fund; Risk; Security; Soft Loan; Tied Loan; and World Bank. LOME CONVENTION. An agreement -- originally signed in 1975 -- through which the European Community provides financial and technical assistance to more than 50 Associated Countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific ("the ACP Countries"), as well as tariff preferences for many of their products in European markets. The ACP countries no longer grant reverse preferences, as they were required to under earlier Yaounde Conventions,as a condition for receiving EC preferences. The Lome Convention also created a mechanism known as "STABEX," which was designed to stabilize the export earnings of individual "Associated Countries" from selected commodities. Compensatory payments from the European Community under STABEX are based on the amount by which a country's earnings from exports of specified commodities fall below designated levels. The Lome Convention, which is renegotiated periodically, was last renegotiated in 1990. See also ACP Countries; Commodity; Compensatory Finance; European Community; Managed Trade; and Reverse Preferences. LONG-TERM AGREEMENT ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN COTTON TEXTILES (LTA). See Multi-Fiber Arrangement Regarding International Trade in Textiles. LOSS. See Profit; and Risk. LOT. See Level of Trade Adjustment. LTA. See Multi-Fiber Arrangement Regarding International Trade in Textiles.