Cambodia rides RCEP wave

Over four years after coming into force, the world's largest trade deal has significantly boosted Cambodia's trade with its member economies. In the first eight months of 2026, the kingdom saw its trade with Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) members surging 21.15 percent year-on-year to $31.93 billion.

Exports from the Southeast Asian country to RCEP members increased 8.9 percent to $7.22 billion, while imports jumped 25 percent to $24.71 billion, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sept 12, citing data from the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce.

The surge was mainly driven by tariff preferences and trade facilitation measures under the mega-regional trade pact.

RCEP was launched on Jan 1, 2022 and comprises member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the bloc's major trading partners — China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

Timor-Leste, which formally became ASEAN's 11th member last year, has not been automatically included in the pact, but the bloc has voiced its support for Timor-Leste's accession.

The free trade pact remains Cambodia's largest market, accounting for 61.2 percent of the country's total international trade volume of $52.1 billion during the eight-month period.

China, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, and Thailand stand as Cambodia's top five trading partners within the bloc.

Penn Sovicheat, secretary of state and spokesman for the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, said the regional trade pact serves as a primary catalyst for Cambodia's economy, driving long-term export expansion and acting as a powerful incentive for foreign direct investment.

"The regional trade pact will help us graduate from the Least Developed Country (LDC) status in 2029, transition into an upper-middle-income country by 2030, and fast-track our goal of becoming a high-income country by 2050," he was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

Thong Mengdavid, deputy director of the China-ASEAN Studies Center at the Cambodia University of Technology and Science, said the growth in trade volume was a result of Cambodia's increasingly deep integration into regional economic networks.

He told Xinhua that RCEP's unified rules of origin are reducing trade barriers, improving market access for Cambodian agricultural and manufactured goods, and making the kingdom a more attractive destination for light manufacturing, foreign direct investment, and regional supply chains.

The Cambodian Ministry of Commerce encouraged the private sector to better utilize the RCEP and other free trade agreements to broaden market access and mitigate the possible erosion of certain trade preferences tied to LDC graduation, according to Khmer Times.

Exporters were also encouraged to improve production quality and standard compliance to maximize benefits under RCEP.

Accounting for roughly one-third of global GDP, about the same with that of North America and twice that of European Union, RCEP has played a key role in facilitating trade among its members.

In China, preliminary customs data released on Sept 8 showed that trade with RCEP member economies increased 30.2 percent between January and August this year to reach $1.63 trillion, with exports and imports surging by 24 and 37.8 percent, respectively.

Malaysia's exports to RCEP markets also rose 19.7 percent to 564.02 billion ringgit ($138.61 billion) in the first seven months of this year, according to data released in August by national trade promotion agency Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE).

Similarly, between January and July, Thailand's total trade value with RCEP members reached $258.88 billion, up 23 percent from the same period last year, according to data from the Thai Ministry of Commerce.

Contact the writers at kelly@chinadailyapac.com