Japan plans to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Cambodia to maximize benefits from its regional trade framework and gain advantages from its regional trade with China, South Korea and other countries. Hun Sen, Prime Minister, Japan also called for speedy negotiation of RCEP which also covers South Korea, New Zealand markets, among others.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, and four of ASEAN’s FTA partners—Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea.

Negotiations for RCEP were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia. In 2018, the 16 negotiating parties accounted for about half of the world’s population and 39 per cent of the world’s GDP. Without India, the 15 negotiating parties account for 30 per cent of the world’s population and just under 30 per cent of the world’s GDP. Cambodia-Japan trade volume decreased slightly by 3.7 per cent to $1.01 billion in H1, 2020, figures from the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) indicate. From January-June, Cambodia exported $791.6 million worth of products to Japan, a year-on-year decrease 0.2 percent.