Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce and Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade talked about boosting trade activities, pledging to push the bilateral trade volume to $10 billion by this year. The meeting, co-chaired by Cambodian secretary of state of the Ministry of Commerce Sok Sopheak and Tran Quoc Khanh, deputy minister of Industry and Trade, was held virtually on April 22. In the meeting, both sides discussed resolving the Extended Cumulation of Rule of Origin for bicycle products for export to the EU, cashew nut and sugar exports to Vietnam and establishing a framework for strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two countries. “The two sides exchanged views on finding a solution to the Extended Cumulation Rule for the production of bicycles that Cambodia exports to the EU after the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement came into force in 2020 which regulation of the European Union requires the Cambodian-Vietnamese side to complete the necessary procedures to obtain Extended Cumulation rule,†the ministry’s statement said. “For the discussion on the issue of exporting cashew nuts and sugar from Cambodia to Vietnam, which has some technical obstacles, the two sides are committed to continue to work together to resolve the issues with high attention,†the statement read. Although there are some trade issues between Cambodia and Vietnam, the trade volume between the two countries has increased steadily. In 2021, the Cambodia-Vietnam joint trade volume reached nearly $9 billion. For 2022, the two sides are committed to increasing trade volume to $10 billion. In the first quarter of this year, the bilateral trade between Cambodia and Vietnam amounted to $1.7 billion. Cambodia exported $758 million worth of goods to Vietnam, a 3.9 percent increase while imported $963 million, a 22.7 percent increase.