The formal launch by the European Commission of the procedure for the temporary suspension of the Everything but arms (EBA) preference regime on Monday 11 February leaves Phnom Penh six months to convince the European Union of the improvement of human and labour rights in Cambodia.
In January, Member States gave the green light to the proposal of the Commission and the European External Action Service, notified in October 2018 (see EUROPE 12125). The start of this process opens a six-month period of “monitoring and evaluation” during which the EU has expressed its readiness to “fully engage with the Cambodian authorities”, in the words of Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Trade, who stressed that “today's move is neither a final decision nor the end of the process”.
At the end of another six months, the Commission will decide and decide, if necessary, on the extent and duration of the withdrawal.
In the absence of concrete results, in one year from now, the EU could decide to suspend or reduce Phnom Penh's preferential access to its market.
As a Least Developed Country (LDC), Cambodia benefits from the EBA initiative, which gives its exports full duty-free access to the European market, with the exception of arms, in return for which LDCs are required to respect fundamental principles. However, the EU External Action Service and the Commission have noted, for several years, serious and systematic violations of fundamental and labour rights in the country, culminating in the July 2018 general elections.
A "values-based" policy”
It is also an opportunity for the Commission to turn words into deeds and demonstrate that its trade policy can indeed serve European values. "When we say that the EU's trade policy is based on values, these are not just empty words", Malmström said.
Cambodia's largest trading partner, the EU absorbs 40% of the country's total exports, which grew substantially by 227% between 2011 and 2016, with almost 80% in the textiles and clothing sectors. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)