Cambodia-China trade continues to rise in Jan.-April

This photo taken on Dec. 14, 2023 shows the exhibition booth of Cambodia, the guest country of honor of the 26th China (Hainan) International Tropical Agricultural Products Winter Trade Fair in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

PHNOM PENH, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia-China trade has continued to grow in the first four months of 2024, thanks to regional and bilateral free trade agreements, a commerce official said.

The bilateral trade volume hit 4.48 billion U.S. dollars during the January-April period this year, an increase of 15.1 percent from 3.89 billion dollars over the same period last year, said a Cambodia's General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE) report released on Friday.

China remained the top trading partner of Cambodia, followed by Vietnam, the United States, Thailand, and Japan, the report said.

Cambodian Ministry of Commerce's Secretary of State and Spokesperson Penn Sovicheat said the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement and the Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA), both of which took effect in 2022, had given a boost to this trade growth.

"Under the two trade pacts, our products, especially 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.

Sovicheat also attributed the growth to excellent ties and close cooperation between the two countries as well as the arrangements of trade promotional events such as expos and business forums.

Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, said the growth truly reflected strong economic and trade relations between the two countries.

"This rising trade volume has provided greater benefits to the two countries and peoples, injecting stronger impetus into building a Cambodia-China community with a shared future," he told Xinhua.