European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom announced on Monday that the European Union is launching action that could see it suspend Cambodia's preferential access to the EU market. In a statement on Tuesday, the government denounced as an "extreme injustice" the European Commission's decision Monday to launch the formal procedure for the temporary withdrawal of the everything but arms (EBA) preferences for Cambodia. Cambodia benefits from the 28-member bloc's EBA trade regime, which allows the world's poorest nations to sell any goods, except weapons, tariff-free into the European Union. Brussels warned last July that Cambodia could lose this preferential access after widely criticised elections that kept Prime Minister Hun Sen in power and gave his party every parliamentary seat. "However, without more conclusive action from the government, the situation on the ground calls Cambodia's participation in the EBA scheme into question," she said.

Source: Bangkok Post February 13, 2019 14:03 UTC