Cambodia is scheduled to start reducing its customs tariff on Saturday for goods traded in the Asean countries, its first step to comply with a 1992 zero-tariff agreement of the Asean Free Trade Area, or AFTA.
Joining Asean in April, Cambodia is now required to gradually reduce its tariff to zero by 2015 in accordance with the core agreement of AFTA, in which member states will be able to import commodities from Asean countries without taxes.
Among roughly 7,000 items listed in the country’s tariff, about 3,100 items are subject to the immediate tariff reduction, according the Asean department of the Finance Ministry.
Uy Sambath, deputy director of the Asean department, said the items listed for immediate reduction are seldom-traded items so the impact on import revenues is expected to be minimum.
Officials said many of the items listed have already had low tariffs so that less than 1,000 items will see major changes in the import tax rates in 2000.
