France–Cambodia: Trade Is Growing, and So Is the Deficit
The French buy eight times more from Cambodia than they sell to it. Weeks before the business forum of 16–17 November in Phnom Penh, an analysis of a trade imbalance and of a limited French investment presence.
Goods trade between France and Cambodia reached €1.75 billion in 2025, up 17.5% on 2024, according to French customs. France bought €1.56 billion of Cambodian products and sold it €189 million. The balance is negative by €1.37 billion. Cambodia is only France's 49th supplier and 101st customer, but its 20th-largest bilateral deficit.
€ million | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
French exports | 221 | 130 | 171 | 125 | 189 |
French imports | 975 | 1,311 | 1,198 | 1,364 | 1,561 |
Balance | −754 | −1,181 | −1,028 | −1,239 | −1,372 |
Source: French customs, country sheet of the Directorate for Economic Diplomacy, February 2026.
A deficit driven by imports
Since 2021 the deficit has grown by €618 million. Imports account for nearly 95% of that increase. They rose from €975 million to €1.56 billion, while exports fell from €221 million to €189 million.
Two product families make up 91% of French purchases: clothing (€1.12 billion, 72%) and leather, luggage and footwear (€291 million, 19%). These industries grew thanks to the European “Everything But Arms” scheme, which gives the least developed countries duty-free, quota-free access to the EU market. Brussels suspended part of it in 2020. The pattern goes beyond France: the European Union as a whole ran a €5.5 billion deficit with Cambodia, on €7.3 billion of trade in 2025. France's deficit is about a quarter of it.
On the sales side, French exports rose 51% in 2025, after a low of €125 million in 2024. Aeronautics (€62.3 million, a third of the total) and agri-food (€54.3 million, 29%) drive the rebound. Aircraft deliveries also explain the 2021 peak of €221 million. Industrial and agricultural machinery is down 52.9%, and optical and IT products 34.7%.
The market remains narrow: 17.4 million people, GDP estimated at $47 billion in 2025 and $2,755 per head, according to the IMF.
What the deficit says
In macroeconomic terms it weighs little: under 2% of France's goods trade deficit, which stood at €69.2 billion in 2025. It reflects Cambodia's place in the garment and footwear supply chains, and the small share of French products in a market that is still small. Closing it would require multiplying exports by more than eight. These figures cover goods only. Services and investment income are not included.
Cambodian statistics differ. The AKP news agency reports $568 million of trade with France in 2025, including $447 million of Cambodian exports. French customs record €1.56 billion of imports. This article relies on the French figures.
Modest investment
The stock of French investment in Cambodia stood at €692 million at the end of 2024, 23% more than in 2020. It represents about 1.5% of the country's foreign investment stock. Since 1994 the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) has approved 44 qualified investment projects by French companies, worth $380 million. That places France ninth among foreign direct investors, according to a count published in September 2025.
The context has changed in scale. The CDC registered 630 projects in 2025, worth nearly $10 billion, 45% more than in 2024. China accounts for 52.96% of approved amounts over the first nine months.
There is no single official diagnosis of France's limited place. The lawyer Antoine Fontaine noted in 2024, in Forbes France, that large French groups are little present in Cambodia, like other Europeans, and that investors come mainly from China, Singapore and Australia. The French presence rests on more than 300 entrepreneurs, mostly in hotels and restaurants, according to the French Treasury. These are mid-sized businesses making small individual investments.
The tax framework remains incomplete. No double-taxation treaty is in force between the two countries. Negotiations began at the end of 2023. A ministerial reply published in the Senate's Official Journal on 5 February 2026 described them as “close to completion.”
The forum, a tool for rebalancing
The France–Cambodia Business Forum (FAFC) is organised by the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Cambodia (CCIFC) and the French Foreign Trade Advisers. The Cambodian Ministry of Commerce and the CCIFC signed a memorandum of understanding on 3 September to co-organise it. Several hundred companies are expected.
On Tuesday 17 November, from 3:45 pm to 5:30 pm, B2B sessions pair each participant with Cambodian counterparts selected by sector, needs and projects. On Monday 16 November, at the GDT Tower, the ministers of Public Works, Agriculture, Health, and Mines and Energy each host a workshop, with B2G meetings alongside. On Tuesday, at the Raffles Hotel Le Royal, six round tables cover energy, construction, transport, tourism, agro-industry and water.
One project is already under way. During a visit by Nicolas Forissier, the minister delegate for foreign trade, on 9 and 10 July, the Cambodian group WorldBridge and the French company SEMMARIS signed a services agreement for a feasibility study of an international agri-food wholesale market in Phnom Penh. Its founder, Sear Rithy, takes part in the “Industry and Innovation” workshop on 16 November. Emmanuel Macron announced in April that he would come to Phnom Penh in November. His address at the opening of the forum is, however, listed in the programme as “subject to confirmation.”
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