May Kunmakara
The Phnom Penh Post
POLITICAL conflict was not behind a 22.15 percent annualised drop in bilateral trade last year between Cambodia and Thailand, the government’s director general for international trade said Thursday.According to Thai customs statistics from the Thai Embassy’s Foreign Trade Promotion Office (FTPO), bilateral trade between the two countries plummeted from US$2.13 billion in 2008 to just $1.658 billion in 2009.
Cambodia’s exports to Thailand went down by 13.84 percent to $77.73 million, in 2009, from $90.22 million in 2008. The Kingdom’s imports from Thailand fell by 22.52 percent – to $1.580 billion from $2.040 billion.Sok Sopheak, director general of international trade for the Ministry of Commerce, said the decline in trade was because of the global economic crisis, which has stymied world demand for goods. “This downturn did [not] only apply to trade with Thailand but it also affected our trade with other countries,” he said.
The director added that he does not believe the diplomatic conflict between Phnom Penh and Bangkok over the presence in Cambodia of former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra – who was appointed Prime Minister Hun Sen’s economic advisor – was the key factor in the drop.
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