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Cambodia’s Q1 export to US tops $2.5 billion
Cambodia exported $2,499 million worth of products to the United States in the first quarter of this year, an 11 percent decrease as compared to the same period last year, the US Census Bureau reported yesterday.
The Kingdom imported $90 million worth of products from the world’s biggest economic power, a 10.9 percent decrease year-on-year.
In March alone, Cambodia’s export to the US amounted to $856 million, while import was valued at $22 million.
The GSP status, offered to Less Developing Countries by the US, expired last December and the US government is in the process of reactivating the status.
Cambodia’s export to the US was mostly garments and included goods such as footwear, bicycles and furniture under the trade preference – the Most Favoured Nation status and travel goods are exported under the Generalized Specialised Preference (GSP).
The Kingdom’s imports include automobiles, machinery, electrical appliances and electronics.
The likely slowdown of economic growth in the United States and European countries, which are major export markets for Cambodian garments, might adversely affect the sectors this year.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said the global economic situation is currently not good in the United States and in Europe due to prolonged wars in some countries, resulting in global inflation, causing people to lose a lot of money for orders from the outside, including from Cambodia.
“The global economic crisis began with the crisis from the United States to Europe, and the loss of revenue in the United States and Europe has severely affected production areas in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and other countries, losing orders because their people lose revenue,” the Prime Minister said in March.
Although exports are slowing, the US market remains the biggest market for Cambodia’s products.
Commerce Ministry’s spokesman Penn Sovicheat told Khmer Times that the US market has potential for Cambodian products, mainly footwear, clothes, and travel goods.
“The US remains a potential market because Cambodia exports about 40 percent of its total export,” Sovicheat said.
Garment is the biggest foreign exchange earner for Cambodia, generating hundreds of thousands of jobs for local people, mostly women.
The Kingdom exported garment products worth $9.03 billion in 2022, accounting for 40.1 percent of the kingdom’s total export of $22.48 billion, according to a report from the General Department of Customs and Excise.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501286675/cambodias-q1-export-to-us-tops-2-5-billion/