Thailand
Cambodia: Travel goods export to US up despite no GSP
Cambodia’s travel goods export to the US has increased by 59.5 percent in the first half of this year though the General Specialized Preference (GSP), which offers trade preference to the Kingdom’s travel goods, has not yet been renewed by the country.
Figures from the Cambodia Travel Goods and Leather Association showed that the export of bags and travel goods to the US amounted to $802 million in the January-June period this year, compared to the same period last year.
The US is the biggest market for Cambodia’s bags and travel goods, said association’s honorary president Ly Kunthai.
Cambodia’s travel and bag products have only received GSP status in the US market since 2016 and other products such as clothes and footwear are exported to the US under the Most-Favoured Nation status, which allows for discounts on imports.
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 bags and travel goods are increasingly absorbed by the US market and expected to grow further, Kunthai said.
In the first half of 2021, garment, footwear, and travel goods exports from Cambodia amounted to $6,561 million, a 39 percent increase year-on-year, according to a report by the General Department of Customs and Excise.
The US remains the largest market for Cambodian exports with $4.64 billion in the first semester this year, up 54 percent from the same period last year, the report showed.
Penn Sovicheat, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Commerce, said that the GSP scheme has contributed to the growth in travel goods export to the US and bilateral trade.
“Cambodia’s exports to the US under the GSP scheme are taxed between 12 percent and 19 percent,” Sovicheat said, adding that the GSP had contributed to an increase in the two-way trade between the two countries.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501129811/travel-goods-export-to-us-up-despite-no-gsp/