Canada continues granting duty-free for Cambodian products: ambassador

Canada still continues offering trade privileges to Cambodia, Bangkok-based Canadian Ambassador to Cambodia Philip Calvert said here Wednesday.

The remarks were made during a meeting with Cambodian Foreign Ministry Secretary of State Ouch Borith. "The ambassador told me that Canada still continues providing Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) to Cambodia,"Borith briefed reporters after the meeting, explaining that under the GSP scheme, Cambodian products exported to Canada are duty-free. "This is good news for Cambodia, especially for the garment sector,"he said, adding that the country exported products, mostly garments, in equivalent to 480 million U.S. dollars to Canada last year.

According to Borith, Canada is committed to increasing ties and cooperation with Cambodia and will open a representative office in Phnom Penh soon before setting up an embassy residence in the future.

He said the two countries also planned to establish political consultations in order to boost bilateral relations and cooperation.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, Cambodia has received GSP from 31 countries, mostly European countries, the United States, China, Japan and South Korea. Endi