Cambodia’s garment manufacturers have called on the European Union (EU) to not withdraw its trade preferences, saying it would have a negative impact on the industry and the workers and families it supports.
The call by the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) follows a decision by the European Commission earlier this month to launch a procedure to withdraw the country’s preferential access to duty-free trade benefits over human and labour rights violations. The move could see Cambodia lose access to the duty-free Everything But Arms (EBA) preferential trade programme.
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In a letter last week to EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström, GMAC secretary general Ken Loo highlighted how the garment and footwear industry employs some 700,000 workers, over 85% of them women from rural provinces.
A further 2m people, out of the country’s 16m population, is economically dependent on the sector, Loo said, adding that more than US$150m is paid in salary to these workers each month.
“The temporary suspension of the EBA project, or any short-term unilateral sanctions, can have a negative impact on the lives of our workers and their families. All the progress Cambodia has made over the last two decades through efforts with all stakeholders, including development partners such as the European Union, can be quickly destroyed.”
Cambodia is the second biggest EBA beneficiary and 95.5% of its EBA-eligible exports were made under EBA preferences. In turn, garments account for some 75% of Cambodia’s exports to the EU.
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By GlobalDataThe EBA programme allows exporters in least developed countries to ship products duty-free to the EU. However, these trade preferences can be temporarily withdrawn in case of serious and systematic violations laid down in a list of fundamental human rights and labour right conventions in accordance with the provisions of the EU GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) regulation.
Loo said he remains optimistic the clothing sector will not be subject to sanctions given its record of promoting 15 conventions related to human rights, and 12 related to the environment, good governance and drug trafficking. The sector has also worked with the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) programme, which has been operating since 2001.
“We are committed to the continuous improvement process of our sector and for our workers,” Loo asserted. “We need support from all our partners, including the European Union, to make it happen.”
The letter from GMAC was followed by one from the commissioner at the British Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia (BritCham), also calling for a re-think on the potential withdrawal of trade sanctions. Chair Trevor Sworn said such a move would have “adverse effects on the country’s ongoing economic progress harming the very people the EBA arrangement sought to benefit.”
He said it could also have a damaging long-lasting impact on the relationship between Cambodia and the European Union, undermine years of work developing business ties, and inexorably drive Cambodia to engage in ever greater influence with and from China. “History has shown that economic sanctions of this nature do not achieve the political change aims they are intended to bring about.”
The EU first raised its concerns at the end of last year following crackdowns by Prime Minister Hun Sen in the run-up to the general election on 29 July. In July, the bloc said it was assessing Cambodia’s eligibility for key preferential trade access.
The move comes as it has been announced that garment and footwear workers in Cambodia will see monthly wages increase by 7% to US$182 from the beginning of next year.
