Cambodia gears for AFTA

Cambodia gears for AFTA

PHNOM PENH (Reuters): Cambodia is committed to cutting tariffs in line with ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) requirements and is making progress in reducing reliance on import taxes, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said on Tuesday.

Cambodia, which joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in April, has 10 years to slash tariffs on most goods to a maximum five percent in line with the group's free trade rules.

"The goal is to ensure that we lower all the tariff barriers for all products," Cham Prasidh told Reuters at a ministry seminar on AFTA.

"We are going to move in the same line as other ASEAN members have done so far. There would be less and less tariff lines in the temporary exclusion list and also in the general exception list," he said.

He said Cambodia would this week present ASEAN with details of its tariff reduction plans and detail which items would be on the various AFTA lists which enable countries to exclude temporarily items from the tariff-cut plan.

Cham Prasidh also said Cambodia was making progress in weaning itself off an over-reliance on import taxes.