Cambodia Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in cambodia, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Standards for Trade
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Overview

Cambodia adopted the Law on Standards of Cambodia in 2007 to improve the quality of products, services, and management; raise and rationalize production efficiency; ensure fair and simplified trade; rationalize product use; and enhance consumer protection and public welfare.  Cambodia allows a mix of voluntary and mandatory standards requirement depending on types of products and services when it is in the interest of public safety, and industry.  More details about standard requirements are available at the ISC’s website at the following link.  The government created an Institute of Standards of Cambodia (ISC) in 2008 as a national standard institution who draft laws and regulations, conducts production surveillance, provides supervision and technical support, provides training and consultancy to help companies register and certify their products, disseminates technical regulations, and develops national standards for products and management. 

Standards

The ISC does not have a technical team to develop standards for laboratory analysis techniques.  As a member of ASEAN, Cambodia follows the ASEAN standards harmonization which requires Cambodia to follow the European Union standards.  The United States and Cambodia signed an agreement to accept U.S. auto standards (USFMVSS) in 2019 under U.S.-Cambodia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). 

Generally, Cambodia uses CODEX, and the ISO/IEC guide 21-1 and 2:2005 as guides for adopting international standards as national standards or technical regulations.  Several government bodies and agencies have authorities to initiate their own standards and then propose those standards to the ISC to be adopted as national standards.  The Ministry of Health is charged with prescribing standards, quality control, distribution, and labeling requirements for pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, and cosmetics.  The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries is responsible for agricultural products.  The National Standards Council (NSC), established in 2009, leads coordination in the development of national standards; advises the ISC on the criteria and procedures pertinent to the preparation, approval, acceptance, and selection of the standards; and considers and approves proposals for Cambodian standards prepared and recommended by ISC to develop, adopt, review, revise, or cancel Cambodian standards.  The NSC is chaired by the Minister of Industry, Science, Technology, and Innovation, with representatives from relevant technical line ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries; the Ministry of Health; and the Ministry of Commerce.  Overall, the NSC is the national secretariat, which oversees, regulates, verifies, and adopts or certifies standards proposed by each technical ministry.  The mandate of the NSC is to ensure quality and standard conformity with national and international standards.

Testing, Inspection and Certification

The ISC has the authority to issue certificates for products required to conform with Cambodia’s standard requirements. This includes electronic products and vehicles. 

Publication of Technical Regulations

Technical regulations of Cambodian standards are available on the ISC website.

Contact Information 

Institute of Standards of Cambodia 

No. 538, National Road 2, Sangkat Chak-Angre Leu, Khan Meanchey, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 

Tel: (855) 23 428 745

Fax: (855) 23 428 745

Email: discinfo@camnet.com.kh

Website: www.isc.gov.kh 

Use ePing to review proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures. 

The ePing SPS&TBT platform (https://epingalert.org/), or “ePing”, provides access to notifications made by World Trade Organization (WTO) Members under the Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), distributed by the WTO from January 16, 1995 to present.  ePing is available to all stakeholders free of charge and does not require registration unless the user wishes to receive customized e-mail alerts.  Use it to browse notifications on past as well as new draft and updated product regulations, food safety and animal and plant health standards and regulations, find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees, locate information on SPS/TBT Enquiry Points and notification authorities, and to follow and review current and past notifications concerning regulatory actions on products, packaging, labeling, food safety and animal and plant health measures in markets of interest. 

Notify U.S., operated and maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since 2003 to distribute and provide access to notifications (and associated draft texts) made under the WTO TBT Agreement for U.S. stakeholders, has reached its end of life.  Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates a national TBT (and an SPS) Enquiry Point.  National TBT Enquiry Points are authorized to accept comments and official communications from other national TBT Enquiry Points, which are not part of the WTO or the WTO Secretariat.  All comment submissions from U.S. stakeholders, including businesses, trade associations, U.S domiciled standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies, consumers, or U.S. government agencies on notifications to the WTO TBT Committee should be sent directly to the USA WTO TBT Inquiry Point.  Refer to the comment guidance at https://tsapps.nist.gov/notifyus/data/guidance/guidance.cfm for further information.  This guidance is provided to assist U.S. stakeholders in the preparation and submission of comments in response to notifications of proposed foreign technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.

Cambodia joined the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1995 and is also a member of the ASEAN Consultative Committee on Standards and Quality (ACCSQ).  Cambodia ratified the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Mutual Recognition Arrangements.  It has signed numerous trade agreements, including the U.S.-Cambodia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in 2006.  The TIFA provides a forum to address bilateral trade issues and allows Cambodia and the United States to coordinate on regional and multilateral issues.  In October 2021, Cambodia ratified the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which entered into force in January 2022.  Cambodia signed a bilateral free trade agreement with the PRC (CCFTA) in October 2020 which became effective in January 2022. Cambodia also has an FTA with the Republic of Korea (CKFTA) effective as of December 2022; and concluded a trade partnership agreement with the United Arab Emirates (Cambodia-UAE CEPA) on June 8, 2023.