The impacts of trade reform will interact with broader sector and economy wide policies.  Thus the trade strategy cannot be viewed in isolation but should be assessed in the context of an overall pro-poor macro economic policy framework, which needs to position poverty reduction at the center of the development targets, and not treat it as a potential positive externality. 

1.                    All trade policy prescriptions should be subjected to rigorous poverty impact assessment, and adjusted accordingly to ensure that the overall trade sector strategy is focused on poverty reduction rather than just aggregate growth targets. 

Section 4.2.2 mentions “ex-ante poverty and social impact analyses” of trade policies, but this is not included in the Action Plan Matrix.  The matrix mentions poverty impact assessment for individual investments, which is a requirement under the EIA sub-decree.  No budget is so far given.

2.                    Extensive and on-going consultation with civil society and affected groups should be a key part of the trade strategy development process.  Relevant stakeholders should be involved in policy formulation, and in particular the communities that will be most affected by particular trade legislation (i.e. consulting with farmers when discussing policy on tariff barriers on agricultural imports). Both consultation and analysis should seek to identify and address gender specific impacts.

Included in the Action Plan matrix but not in the main text. No budget available in the Action Plan matrix.

3.                    FDI should be regulated and investment conditional on transfer of skills, technology, profits, and commitment to protect human rights, labour and environmental standards. Appropriate backward linkages need to be made in ensuring the domestic economy gains long-term benefits: FDI should maximise use of domestic inputs into production processes, as this will lead to increased value-added production within Cambodia.  These measures will promote the knowledge and skills needed to enter a more dynamic market niche. 

The need to address issues of “types and conditions of investment, ownership, labour standards and environmental regulations and accountability mechanisms” in relation to FDI and the need for backward linkages to the domestic economy are mentioned.  However, it is not clear how these issues will be addressed.

4.                    The RGC should collaborate with other countries in the region to consider regional homogenisation of positive labour standards, to promote workers rights across the region and prevent the circumvention of labour regulations by FDI through threat of relocation.

Not included.

5.                    Policies that aim for an increase in national output and international trade, must also consider how the benefits are shared out, how incremental income is distributed among various socio-economic groups, and need to focus on investing in sectors where majority of population are concentrated: in particular rural-based, labour intensive agricultural production.

Not specifically included.

6.                    Negative impacts of rapid international integration can be minimized by careful sequencing of steps in transition: it is important to strengthen the domestic economy first before opening up to ensure solid basis for international competitiveness. This requires strengthening economic resource base by investing in human capital, rural infrastructure, accessibility and quality of social services.

Not included.  The emphasis is on rapid trade liberalization while simultaneously building capacity.

7.                    Ensuring that sector and economy wide policies are focused on the rural poor is essential.   Such policies include: ensuring access to markets via the provision of proper infrastructure, reviewing liberalization and protection policies that can adversely impact farmers, i.e. examining the costs of agricultural inputs such as seeds and irrigation.  Policies should favor smallholder farmers rather than large-scale commercial interests.

Not included, except that the need to protect poor producers from price fluctuations through consideration of “carefully paced reduction of tariffs, subsidies and other complementary measures is recognized.”  There is no corresponding action or budget allocation in the Action Plan matrix.