Trade drops 30pc with Thailand and Vietnam

Traders at the border with Thailand bring goods back into Cambodia at Poipet. Trade with Thailand fell 31 percent in the first five months compared with the same period last year. Photo by: Holly Pham

TRADE In free fall

• 31pc decline in trade with Thailand in first five months
• $633.17m in trade recorded
• 30pc drop in trade with Vietnam during same period
• $520m in trade up to May

Source: Vietnam and Thai embassies

Thursday, 30 July 2009
By May Kunmakara and Nguon Sovan
The Phnom Penh Post

Trade with bordering nations falls sharply in first five months compared with last year, say embassies in Phnom Penh

TRADE volumes between Cambodia and each of its larger neighbours, Thailand and Vietnam, dropped sharply in the first five months of 2009 compared with the same period last year.

Figures obtained by the Post from the trade desks of the Thai and Vietnamese embassies in Phnom Penh show overall trade was down around 30 percent in each case. Cambodia runs a trade deficit with both nations.

"In the first five months of 2009, Cambodia-Thailand trade volume was worth US$633.17 million - if compared to the same period of last year of $922.89 million, it dropped 31 percent," the Thai customs report stated.

Trade between the two nations consists almost entirely of imports by Cambodia, with just $18.9 million of the total this year comprised of exports. Those exports were primarily agricultural products, secondhand garments, recyclable metals and fish.

Cambodia's imports of $614 million from Thailand were petrol, consumer products, building materials and cosmetics.

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