The growth of the Cambodian economy has been driven by the liberal and open economic and trade policy adopted by the government. Cambodia is one of the most liberal and open economies in ASEAN. Cambodia completed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the largest free trade agreement, on 15 November 2020, comprising 10 members of ASEAN (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam) and five other regional countries that ASEAN had existing free trade agreements with – Australia, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea (henceforth, Korea), and New Zealand (ASEAN Secretariat 2020a; 2020b). The RECP agreement came into force on 1 January 2022 with ratification by four non-ASEAN members (Australia, China, Japan, and New Zealand) and six ASEAN members (Brunei, Cambodia, the Lao PDR, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam) (ASEAN Secretariat, 2022).

In line with the momentum for more market access and progressive liberalization, both Switzerland and Cambodia are seeking a bilateral FTA, under the framework of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). The impact of the bilateral free trade agreement, Cambodia-Switzerland FTA with non-ASEAN member and from the country in EU, will have positive impact on the Cambodian economy in terms of diversification of its markets and expanding industrial base to higher value-added activities in manufacturing, services, and agricultural sectors. Both countries are pressing for deeper trade and investment trade integration that will lead to a stronger diversification of their export markets and participate into global and regional supply chains. In fact, the CEPA will be one of the Cambodia’s major forward-looking FTA outside of the East Asian region.