EU unlikely to fully withdraw Cambodia’s EBA status: GMAC

12 Jun EU unlikely to fully withdraw Cambodia’s EBA status: GMAC

The European Union (EU) is unlikely to fully withdraw Cambodia’s Everything-But-Arms (EBA) trade status, the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia said after meeting visiting EU representatives recently. Labour trends are positive and speculations about EBA are alarmist and affect investor confidence, Kaing Monika, GMAC deputy secretary general said. In February, the European Commission launched a monitoring period which could lead to the suspension of the country’s preferential access to the EU market under the EBA trade scheme. GMAC is working to address points of concern that the EU perceive as setbacks to labour rights after 2016 and those are not difficult to rectify, Monika said. As achieving everything that the EU demands might not be easy, so a partial withdrawal is likely, a Cambodian newspaper report quoted him as saying. The EU delegation began its second fact-finding mission in the country on June 3 to analyse whether it should lose its EBA trade status, according to outgoing EU ambassador George Edgar.

Source – Fibre2Fashion.