Abstract
The garment, footwear, and travel goods (GFT) sector remains a cornerstone of Cambodia’s economy. In 2025, the sector comprised 1,810 firms and employed over 1.11 million workers, around 75 per cent of whom were women. It is the country’s largest source of foreign exchange, accounting for 51.8 per cent of total exports in 2025. The United States has been Cambodia’s main GFT export market, representing more than 38 per cent of GFT export revenue in 2024, followed by the European Union at nearly 28 per cent, with the remainder distributed across Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, China, and ASEAN markets. In April 2025, the US announced “reciprocal tariffs” on imported goods, initially proposing a 49 per cent tariff on Cambodian exports. Following several rounds of negotiations, a final tariff framework was agreed in August 2025, setting the tariff rate at 19 per cent – lower than initially proposed, but still significant for a highly export-oriented sector.