Thailand
Cambodia’s export to China increases as FTA takes effect
Cambodia exports to China increased by 39 percent to $1,510 million last year, a positive move to the Kingdom’s trade as Cambodia and China put into effect their newly-endorsed bilateral free trade agreement.
Figures from the Ministry of Commerce showed that the bilateral trade between Cambodia and China reached $11,144 million last year, a year-on-year increase of 37.28 percent from 2020.
The total import from China was valued at $9,633 million, a 37 percent year-on-year increase.
Commerce Ministry spokesman Penn Sovicheat said that the bilateral trade of Cambodia and China would expectedly increase supported by the implementation of the bilateral FTA.
“Increasing bilateral trade amount is to support the effective bilateral FTA between two countries and acceleration of protocol procedure negotiation on allowing agricultural product exports from Cambodia to China,” Sovicheat said.
Cambodia and China started the implementation of the bilateral FTA, which is the Kingdom’s first bilateral trade pact, from earlier this year.
The agreement, which was officially signed on October 12, 2020, brings the proportion of zero-tariff products in the goods trade between China and the Southeast Asian nation to more than 90 percent for both countries.
The Cambodia-China FTA extends across a wide range of sectors, including trade, tourism, investment, transportation, and agriculture.
China will provide duty-free status to some 98 percent of imports from Cambodia whereas Cambodia has agreed to exemptions of up to 90 percent of its imports from China.
Through the CCFTA, Cambodia hopes to increase bilateral trade with China to US$10 billion by 2023, up from $8 billion in 2020. This is a timely development for Cambodia as businesses continue to reel from the European Union’s (EU) partial withdrawal of the Everything but Arms (EBA) status in 2020.
Lim Heng, vice-president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, said that the agricultural products are a priority for exports to China, meaning that upgrading and enhancing the quality and reply to standard requirements are needed to be addressed.
“Most products exported to China are agricultural products. More investment and increasing capacity of production are needed aimed to push more and gain value-added to local products,” Heng said.
Cambodia exports mostly agricultural products including milled rice, mangoes and cassava to China.
Cambodian imports are primarily industrial products and raw materials for the garment industry and building materials.
The two countries started the implementation of the bilateral free trade agreement put into effect earlier this year, paving ways to boost more trade activities and investment opportunities to Chinese investors and foreigners.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501015767/cambodias-export-to-china-increases-as-fta-takes-effect/