US delegation eyes trade
AUS-ASEAN Business Council (USABC) delegation held a two-day trade mission to Cambodia to discuss trade and investment opportunities in the Kingdom, the US Embassy’s Facebook page said.
With 29 representatives from 15 companies, t his is t he largest ever USABC trade delegation to the Kingdom.
On Monday, the delegation met with the ministries of Commerce, and Posts and Telecommunications to strengthen bilatera l cooperation in business and investment between Cambodia and the US.
Follow ing the meeting, Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak said the USABC delegation discussed various issues such as medical equipment i mport procedures, machiner y for t he av iation sector and e-commerce and digita l economy development.
Other topics discussed include Asean vehicle standards as well as preventing the smuggling of Coca-Cola products across borders.
“The Ministr y of Commerce is committed to continuing to promote the business and investment env ironment as well as trade facilitation to attract more foreign investment,” he said.
Sorasa k said the meeting was attended by major US corporations such as Conoco Phillips, Ford, General Electric, Chevron, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Amazon Web Ser v ice, Oracle, Google, Master Card and Visa Card.
“The delegation of t he business council expressed its optimism about the Cambodian market and intends to
invest more to boost economic grow th and trade bet ween the t wo countries,” he said.
The delegation a lso met with Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Tram Iv Tek on Monday to discuss the digita l business sector.
The Cambodia-US bilatera l trade volume accounted for more than $1.6 billion bet ween Januar y and April – up 23.71 per cent compared to the same period last year – the Ministr y of Commerce said.
Cambodian-made suitcases and handbags have been prov ided access to the US market under the Genera lised System of Preferences (GSP) programme since July 2016. Access has contributed significantly to increasing the va lue of the Kingdom’s exports to that countr y.
Last year, Cambodia was the US’ 57th largest supplier of imports and its 104t h largest export market. The va lue of Cambodian exports to the US tota lled $ 3.8 billion last year while US exports to the Kingdom were valued at $447 million.
In June, a delegation f rom the US Trade Representative and the US Department of State v isited the Kingdom to discuss bilatera l trade issues, including automobile standards and the Kingdom’s labour situation.