Phnom Penh, 5-7 March 2024: ERIA, in partnership with Cambodia's Ministry of Commerce, held a three-day capacity building training to support Cambodia’s transposition of Tariff Reduction Schedules (TRS) from the ASEAN Harmonised Tariff Nomenclature (AHTN) Harmonised System (HS) 2017 to AHTN/HS 2022.

As trade evolves, every five years the harmonised system nomenclature governing trade needs to be revised. The AHTN, developed from the HS and tariff rates under the current AHTN version, needs to be transposed to match the new AHTN codes for existing ASEAN free trade agreements (FTAs). For the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, there is now a need to transform current tariff commitments to those of HS 2022. The workshop focused on the technical process involved, and discussion about how to respond to questions from other RCEP participating countries.

H.E. TITH Rithipol, Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Commerce, delivered opening remarks on behalf of the Ministry. He stressed the importance of the potential of the RCEP agreement to enhance trade investment and economic cooperation – in which tariff reduction commitments facilitate greater market access and enhances economic competitiveness.

Mr Jeremy Gross, ERIA’s Director of Capacity Building, in his opening comments, emphasised the importance of the tariff system to provide traders with predictability, security, and transparency for tradeable goods, and governments with revenue.

The workshop was led and facilitated by Mr Ahmad Syaukat Romawi, former Technical Officer at the ASEAN Secretariat. The training was attended by 25 participants coming from the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Economy and Finance.