PHNOM PENH, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's trade with Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) member states rose 21.3 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2026, driven by tariff preferences and trade facilitation, official data showed on Thursday.
According to a report from the Ministry of Commerce, the Southeast Asian country recorded 35.79 billion U.S. dollars in trade with RCEP countries during the January-September period, up from 29.5 billion dollars during the same period last year.
Exports to RCEP members increased by 8.1 percent to 8.03 billion dollars, while imports climbed 25.7 percent to reach 27.76 billion dollars.
The RCEP free trade pact remains Cambodia's largest market, accounting for 61.2 percent of the country's 58.48-billion-dollar total global trade volume over the nine-month period.
China, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, and Thailand rank as Cambodia's top five trading partners within the bloc.
Coming into effect in 2022, the RCEP unites 15 Asia-Pacific nations, combining 10 ASEAN member states with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.
Penn Sovicheat, a secretary of state and spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, said that the pact has played a vital role in accelerating trade growth locally, regionally, and globally.
"The RCEP is a driving force for our long-term trade growth and a major catalyst for drawing foreign direct investment to Cambodia," he told Xinhua.
Sovicheat said this mega-trade deal, together with other bilateral free trade agreements, will lift Cambodia out of its least developed country status by 2029.
"It provides the economic foundation needed to achieve our goals of becoming an upper-middle-income nation by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050," he said.
Kin Phea, director general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, a think tank under the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said that the pact serves as a stabilizing anchor for regional economic integration.
He noted that the deal helps counter global trade headwinds driven by geopolitical conflict, rising transportation costs, and policy uncertainty, even as surging demand for artificial intelligence hardware and technology provides a powerful economic offset.
"Amid rising protectionism and geopolitical rivalries, RCEP proves the enduring value of cooperation," Phea told Xinhua. "Its inclusive framework offers a vital blueprint for stability against global trade headwinds."
Thong Mengdavid, deputy director of the China-ASEAN Studies Center at the Cambodia University of Technology and Science, said that RCEP has proven indispensable for safeguarding Cambodia's trade diversification against global protectionism.
"The substantial growth in Cambodia's trade with RCEP partners proves its real-world value," he told Xinhua. "However, Cambodia should focus on narrowing the import-export gap by boosting domestic production and high-value exports."
Mengdavid added that the mega-pact remains a core economic anchor for the kingdom and the wider world.
"Globally, RCEP has unlocked an immense transformative potential. By gradually eliminating tariffs on over 90 percent of goods, it has catalyzed a more robust, integrated, and cost-effective ecosystem for international trade," he said. "Moving forward, the agreement remains central to anchoring the region's economic stability in an increasingly unpredictable global market." ■
