Vietnam, Cambodia agree to boost trade ties

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam and Cambodia will grant preferential treatment to each other in the field of trade, thus enabling their businesses to easily access the respective markets.

An agreement to this effect was signed by Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh and Cambodian Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak on the sidelines of the seventh Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Summit (ACMECS 7), the eighth Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam Summit (CLMV 8) and the World Economic Forum on the Mekong Region (WEF-Mekong) in Hanoi on October 26.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Hun Sen witnessed the signing.

Under the document, Cambodia will offer special incentives to Vietnam, which are even higher than those the country has committed to other ASEAN member countries.

Accordingly, Vietnamese goods will be more competitive than products of other countries in the Cambodian market.

Up to 29 Vietnamese products, including milk, cream, cassava starch, meat and rice products, sweets, paint, plastics, paper, porcelains, steel and steel products, will enjoy zero-percent import tariff in Cambodia.

In response, Vietnam will give zero-percent import tax to 39 Cambodian products, mostly farm produce.

The agreement is expected to further boost trade ties between the two countries in farm produce, fisheries and industrial products, contributing to raising their people’s living standards, particularly those residing in border areas, as well as sustainable economic development in each nation on an equal and mutual beneficial footing.

It is also hoped to help accelerate the implementation of the joint statement reached during the visit to Cambodia by President Tran Dai Quang last June, aiming to bring the bilateral trade to 5 billion USD in the time ahead.-VNA