Cambodia's trade with China enjoys robust growth in first 8 months of 2024

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's trade with China enjoyed robust growth of 24.5 percent in the first eight months of 2024, said an official report released on Tuesday.

China was still the biggest trading partner of Cambodia, followed by the United States, Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan, said the General Department of Customs and Excise's report.

Cambodian Ministry of Commerce's Secretary of State and Spokesperson Penn Sovicheat said the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) have been a driving force for this trade growth.

"Under both free trade deals, our products, particularly high-quality agricultural produce such as milled rice, yellow bananas, mangoes, longans, cassava, and pepper, have been exported to China with preferential tariffs," he told Xinhua.

Kin Phea, director general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, a think tank under the Royal Academy of Cambodia, agreed that the RCEP and the CCFTA have played an important role in unleashing trade dividends.

"The rise in their bilateral trade has provided greater benefits to the two countries and peoples, injecting stronger momentum into building a Cambodia-China community with a shared future in the new era," he said.