Camboya

The second Trade Policy Review of Cambodia has offered us a good opportunity to deepen our understanding of recent developments the achievements and challenges related to Cambodia’s trade economic and investment policies. Cambodia plays an important and a valued role in the WTO as a Member of the LDC group that has strived for the group’s better integration into the multilateral trading system. The more than 147 advance written questions submitted by 14 Members and the 24 delegations that took the floor underline the importance attached to Cambodia’s trade and investment policies and practices.

Border checkpoints in developing countries often teem with traders transporting small quantities on foot or pushing carts alongside trucks that sport the insignia of formal companies. Those small-scale cross-border traders may eventually be superseded by larger import-export firms. But during the process of development their trade may be a valuable avenue for poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment. This chapter focuses on the latter in the context of small-scale cross-border trade in Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). It analyzes recent survey research undertaken by the World Bank and draws conclusions about the key policy implications for facilitating the poverty-reducing impact of women’s participation in small-scale cross-border trade.