European Commission completes investigation into suspension of Cambodia’s EBA benefits

News from the European Commission official website on November 12. The European Commission sent a preliminary report to the Cambodian authorities on the same day, outlining the results of the investigation launched in February 2019 to suspend Cambodia’s all trade preferences except arms (EBA). The purpose of the inquiry is to address concerns about human and labor rights in Cambodia. Although the EU remains committed to cooperating with the Cambodian authorities, it still requires Cambodia to make tangible and credible improvements on relevant issues to prevent the EU from withdrawing its trade preferential measures for Cambodia. Cambodia needs to respond to the EU investigation report within one month. The EU will make a final decision in February 2020 on whether to temporarily remove Cambodia’s tariff preferences. Cambodia is currently the second largest beneficiary of EBA. In 2018, the EU imported a total of 5.3 billion euros from Cambodia, and 95% of the goods enjoyed EBA tax-free treatment, of which clothing and textiles accounted for about 3/4 (4 billion euros).