Cambodia looks forward to investment from the European Union. The country wants firms and industries from the EU to buy rubber and rice from Cambodia since Cambodia need more markets for those products. The flow of investments from the EU to Cambodia is increasing, especially from the United Kingdom. As a less-developed country, Cambodia enjoys free export quotas and duties to EU markets under the ‘Everything But Arms’ initiative. The EU accounts for about 40 per cent of Cambodia’s total rice exports.

The EU is the biggest market for Cambodia’s milled rice exports. The EU in fact has been a good market for Cambodia’s agricultural products like milled rice and also garments and footwear. Bilateral trade between Cambodia and the EU reached more than three billion euros in 2014. Total direct investment from the EU to Cambodia between January and October 2015 was about 76 million dollars compared with 86 million dollars in 2014.

EU imports from Cambodia are dominated by transport equipment. EU exports to Cambodia are dominated by machinery, transport equipment and agricultural products. Cambodia is one of the 10 members of ASEAN. The countries as a group are the EU’s third largest trading partner after the United States and China.