News

Trade facilitation project to be kicked off in Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam

10 November 2017

Ten senior government officials from Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam met together for the first time for a new project to facilitate agricultural trade at its 1st Steering Committee Meeting for Facilitating Trade for Agricultural Goods in ASEAN (FTAG) between 11 ā€“ 12 October 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand The aim was to establish a common understanding of the objective, scope, steering and implementation structure as well as tentative operational plan for project implementation during its two-year period. As a result, the meeting agreed to conduct a study on assessment of regulatory framework and trade procedures to identify gaps, challenges and areas of intervention for the potential six agricultural crops in the three countries.

Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam trade a lot in agricultural goods within ASEAN. However, gaps in the implementation of regulations on food safety and phytosanitary measures on the ground level disrupt the flow of goods. Started in June 2017, the project aims to develop recommendations for the alignment of regulatory framework on food safety and phytosanitary measures and procedures in selected countries and ASEAN.

By Natasha Angsakulchai, ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems