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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Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade

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.

A weak commercial arbitration infrastructure paired with slow governmental response to judicial requests for clarification could present barriers to U.S. companies if a dispute arises.

Standards and Technical Regulations

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 N

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 is a versatile tool that can be used 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,

  • Receive customized e-mail alerts when new notifications are distributed,

  • Find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees.

Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates an 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 Enquiry 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.