"We welcome Cambodia into our family of TIFA partners in Southeast Asia," said Deputy US Trade Representative (USTR) Karan Bhatia, who signed the agreement along with the Cambodian commerce minister, Cham Prasidh.

The US has concluded similar bilateral trade and investment agreements in the Southeast Asian region with Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and the Philippines. It is currently negotiating a regional TIFA with the 10-member Asean.

According to the USTR's office, the agreement with Cambodia will support the goals of the Bush administration's Enterprise for Asean Initiative. That initiative, launched in October 2002, seeks to strengthen US trade and economic ties with Asean as a force for stability and development in Southeast Asia.

The member countries of Asean are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Burma.

Bhatia said the US looked forward to building bilateral trade and investment relations under the agreement, working more closely with Cambodia on regional and global issues, and helping Cambodia fully implement its World Trade Organisation (WTO) accession obligations. Cambodia became a member of the WTO in October 2004, one of the first "least developed countries" to join the organisation through the full process of negotiation with a working party of other WTO members.

Since Cambodia's WTO accession, US exports to that country have increased. In 2005, its exports to Cambodia rose 18 per cent, reaching almost US$70 million (Bt2.6 billion). Cambodia's exports to the United States were $1.7 billion in the same year.

According to the USTR, two-way trade between the US and the Asean countries has increased considerably over the last decade, totalling $150 billion in 2005. As a combined group, Asean is the US's fourth-largest trading partner.