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.