Trade and Investment Brief and Data Dashboards for Garments, Footwear and Travel Goods (GFT)

The Project at A Glance

Upon the least developed country (LDC) graduation, Cambodia is expected to move into the European Union’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) system for developing countries, which may impact the travel goods, footwear and garment sectors during this transition.

International Economics prepared a quarterly trade and investment brief for Cambodia’s garment, footwear and travel goods (GFT) sector, including information on sector’s potential impact and response to LDC graduation and developed a GFT Trade Data Dashboard for Cambodia. The brief can be accessed here.

The project was implemented for the Textile, Apparel, Footwear & Travel Goods Association in Cambodia (TAFTAC). The analysis was based on existing analysis carried out by International Economics for Cambodia under the ARISE+ and FABRIC programs.

What We Found

Cambodia is expected to graduate from LDC status in 2027 and will have to move away from the EBA trade regime into the European Union’s GSP system for developing countries (i.e., either GSP or GSP+). Among these, travel goods, footwear and garment sectors are expected to face the most challenges from the transition due to higher tariff rates and more stringent rules of origin (ROO) under both GSP and GSP+.

Therefore, in this context, our Team prepared a quarterly trade and investment update for Cambodia’s garment, footwear and travel goods (GFT) sector, and a section dedicated to the sector’s potential impact and response to LDC graduation. This included recommendations for Cambodia to strengthen its capacity to meet the GSP ROO requirements under the EU’s GSP/GSP+.

Furthermore, International Economics built a global export dashboard for TAFTAC that provided key information on the performance of Cambodia in the value of exports, share of the total exports and growth rate of the GFT sector.

Our Strategy and Impact

Our Team included in the quarterly report the competitive challenges which may arise as a result of graduation and the opportunity for upgrading within the FGT global value chain. The brief also contain the latest available data on international trade trends relevant to Cambodia’s GFT. The dashboard covers key areas: global exports, sector performance, competitors and markets of the GFT sector of Cambodia.

Our unique platform provides relevant information related to the GFT sector in Cambodia through interactive and intuitive dashboards, with detailed data at the HS 6-digit level. The Trade dashboard covers a panoply of Trade Indicators available to measure the trade performance of Cambodia in the GFT sector. The sector performance dashboard provides a comprehensive snapshot of each GFT sector’s relative performance within the market. The indicators of the dashboard allow the possibility to measure the import and export growth of the sectors, Revealed Comparative Advantage over competitors as well as a mapping of the main supplying countries of Cambodia through an interactive map.

Our Core Solutions

The world economy is continuously impacted by new risks and challenges, causing significant disruptions to international trade. At International Economics, we provide strategic insights to assist organisations, businesses, and governments in anticipating risks, building resilience, mitigating impacts, and supporting our clients on their recovery against such shocks.

Our expertise in global value chains has been developed from our estimation of the risks and impacts arising from supply chain disruptions and changes in global demand to provide critical insights and analysis to businesses, governments, and communities to help them identify and address gaps and weaknesses within key value chains to improve their resilience against current and future shocks.