Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday said potential closures of garment factories in coming months would be due to novel coronavirus quarantine measures cutting manufacturers off from Chinese materials suppliers, not the result of the E.U. suspending trade benefits.
Garment workers say they’re worried they could lose their jobs if companies are forced to pay tariffs to export clothes and other goods to Europe, one of Cambodia’s largest export markets.
Swedish parliamentarian Asa Eriksson told VOD in an interview that Cambodia was “breaking the rules” of the “Everything But Arms” duty-free trade scheme with the E.U. by disrespecting human rights, which could not be tolerated.
More than 1,000 workers at the NagaWorld casino began a strike on Thursday demanding higher wages and the reinstatement of their union representative, and vowed to continue until their demands were met.
A union’s petition blaming the government for the potential loss of Cambodia’s duty-free trade access to the E.U. was rejected by the prime minister’s cabinet.
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday repeated a warning that Cambodia’s political opposition will be extinguished if the E.U. suspends duty-free trade, because the bloc will no longer have enough sway in the country to protect the party.
The E.U. is asking too much — it’s pushing the government to break the country’s laws — so Cambodia will merely update the bloc about the easing of restrictions for on trial opposition leader Kem Sokha and other concessions, the governmental Human Rights Committee said this week.
Possible E.U. trade sanctions, rising indebtedness and slowing foreign investment — which “peaked” last year — pose substantial risks to the Cambodian economy despite continuing strong growth, the World Bank said in its latest country update.
Government spokesman Phay Siphan on Thursday appealed to media outlets to stop seeing the potential loss of duty-free trade with the E.U. as “an evil that is terrifying for Cambodia.”
Several commentators were incredulous that Prime Minister Hun Sen would go so far as to restore the outlawed CNRP to appease the EU, Cambodia’s biggest export partner.
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