Travel-goods makers told act now or risk missing the boat

Just weeks since the United States announced it would grant new trade privileges that allow Cambodian-manufactured travel goods such as luggage and backpacks to enter the US market duty-free under its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme, a visiting American trade official hinted yesterday that the same privilege could be extended to the Kingdom’s regional competitors.

Speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce event yesterday, Erland Herfindahl, deputy assistant US trade representative for GSP, said that since the US signed off on the expansion of GSP products to include travel goods, Congress has been pushing for the body to consider the inclusion of neighbouring markets.

“At the same time that we announced that we were deferring a decision to grant this duty-free access to non-Least Developed Countries that receive GSP benefits, of which there a`re many in this region, including Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, we are getting a lot feedback that they would like to see us grant the same duty-free access to these countries,” he said.

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