Cambodia exported $3,616 million worth of goods to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries in the first four months of this year, up 7.6 percent from 3,360 million in the same period last year, said a report released by the Ministry of Commerce on Sunday.
The country’s export to RCEP accounted for 38.7 percent of the Kingdom’s total export of $9,334 million during the period, read the report.
From January to April this year, the country imported $9,311 million worth of goods from RCEP nations, an increase of 18.8 percent from $7,834 million in the same period last year.
These figures made Cambodia’s trade with RCEP reach $12,927 million, a year-on-year increase of 15.4 percent, accounting for 65.6 percent of the country’s total international trade of $19,702 million in the mentioned period.
The mega-regional trade pact with almost zero trade tariffs has boosted exporters able to take advantage of the trade deal, resulting in increased exports and imports from Cambodia, said Penn Sovicheat, the ministry’s Secretary of State and spokesman.
“The RCEP is one of Cambodia’s big markets, giving market access to Cambodia’s products and services. The market shares in RCEP represent the potential for made-in-Cambodia products to expand in export to,” Sovicheat said.
The RCEP free trade agreement entered into force on January 1, 2022. The regional trade pact comprises 15 Asia-Pacific countries, including the ten Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – and their five trading partners, namely China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.
Cambodia expects to see export growth between 9.4 percent and 18 percent, which will contribute to the national economic growth between 2 percent and 3.8 percent, the ministry said.
The ministry is currently working to create more free trade agreements with main trade partners to expand market access to local products for export, he said.
Cambodia is currently a signatory to the ASEAN Free Trade Area, the ASEAN+1 Free Trade Agreements with dialogue partners, the RCEP, bilateral free trade agreements with China, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.
