In this long read, South East Asia Globe talks to Cambodian women unionists about the EBA.

Labour rights
Up in arms
Cambodia has bid a (partial) farewell to Everything But Arms — but what is next for the union women left fighting on the front line of the fallout?
Sabina Lawreniuk
March 11, 2020

Say Sokny will always remember her first day of work for Cambodia’s Free Trade Union.

“When I came to this office,” she recalled, standing in the large, messy room in Phnom Penh where the union’s operations take place, “my legs were shaking. Shaking because I was a little girl, a small body, from the province. And I saw, with my own eyes, Chea Vichea’s blood.”

Chea Vichea, the Free Trade Union’s founding president, had been murdered just a few weeks earlier, in mid-January of 2004: shot three times at point-blank range in the head, arm and chest as he stopped by a newsstand in Phnom Penh to buy his morning paper. His killers have never been found, and the murder is presumed to be politically-motivated.

The Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia was set up in 1996, with the help of opposition leader Sam Rainsy, to represent workers in Cambodia’s fledgling garment industry. In the weeks after the shooting, Sokny volunteered to help the union translate the “uncountable” number of letters of solidarity flooding into the union office from all around the world. Many of the union’s staff had fled Cambodia, fearing for their own safety, and the office was often empty. Sokny, then just out of high school, worked alone, in a place that was stained with Vichea’s blood both literally and figuratively.

“And it was smelly, so smelly,” she remembers. “It smelt bloody at the office. And I felt so scared.”

Everything But Arms: trade for development?

It has never been easy being a unionist in Cambodia. This perhaps explains why Cambodia’s union women have mixed feelings about the European Commission’s decision, announced last month, to partially suspend Cambodia’s inclusion in its Everything But Arms trade deal. The EBA initiative was designed to promote development in the world’s poorest countries, permitting duty-free, quota-free exports to lucrative EU markets for Cambodia and 48 other Least Developed Countries.

A clause in the agreement binds beneficiary governments to upholding human and labour rights. Yet for Sokny and her colleagues, it seems as though the EU has merely looked on as fundamental freedoms have been eroding in Cambodia since 2001, when the EBA was introduced.

The period around Vichea’s death in 2004 was a particularly grisly time in the history of the Free Trade Union. Two months before his murder, another Free Trade Union activist, Yim Ry, was shot dead by police at a demonstration outside a garment factory in Phnom Penh. Five months later, Ros Sovannareth, a factory union leader, was killed; a fourth, factory leader Hy Vuthy, was murdered in 2008.

So when Sokny thinks about the protections outlined in the EBA, she is less than impressed.

“What have we got in 20 years? Four dead,” she said. Today, photographs of these fallen comrades stare down from the walls of the union’s office.
Full article: https://southeastasiaglobe.com/up-in-arms/

GMAC, CFA, EuroCham call for postponing EBA withdrawal
03 Jun '20

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), the Cambodia Footwear Association (CFA) and the European Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia (EuroCham) yesterday requested the European Commission to postpone its withdrawal of the ‘Everything But Arms’ (EBA) preferential trade scheme for 12 months so that the apparel, footwear and travel goods sectors recover.

Read more...

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
https://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/appa ... fashion%29

Cambodia would be free to bargain their own deal like any other country. It's not complicated and a bit hilarious to see Eurocham and others (who's members may very well profit from EBA) get their panties twisted in a bunch and talk about how it'll only affect the poor and so on.

IMO, applying trade sanctions at the moment is a bit like shooting a man when he's down and already has both arms removed.

except everyone is in the same position

and it's not applying sanctions, it's removing a privilege

with no orders going out, it probably won't have much effect anyway

they should try freezing a few bank accounts and confiscating a few properties if they actually want to see some progress

IraHayes wrote: ↑Tue Jun 09, 2020 11:22 pm Indirectly related to this topic but did anyone notice what just happened in Vietnam a few days ago?

Vietnam’s National Assembly ratified the EU Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) on June 8. Following the approval, the deal could take effect as early as August. The FTA is expected to boost the country’s manufacturing sector and exports as it recovers from the pandemic.

Any implementation of even partial trade sanctions could see a chunk of businesses moving across the border.

Why the EU–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) is such a big deal
By East Asia Forum on June 22, 2020

In February, the European Parliament adopted the EU–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). This is the most comprehensive and ambitious EU trade agreement with a developing country to date, the result of bilateral negotiations between the two following a failed attempt to negotiate a broader EU–Asean trade agreement.

The EVFTA will be Vietnam’s next big step in international economic integration since joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). It will serve as a catalyst for institutional reforms, economic growth, and social development.

The deal will drive Vietnamese exports and help the country to diversify its international markets, with the EU removing 86 per cent of tariffs currently levied on Vietnamese goods. This is equivalent to 70 per cent of Vietnam’s revenue from its exports to the EU.

It is the biggest commitment made by a trading partner with Vietnam to reduce trade restrictions to date. Lower tariffs on EU-bound Vietnamese goods will give Vietnam an advantage over Asean competitors and China.
https://aecnewstoday.com/2020/why-the-e ... -big-deal/

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 7:19 pm Why the EU–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) is such a big deal

The Real Reason Why Some Nations Are Rich and Others Poor

This . . . refutes the prevailing U.S. foreign policy approach that deems that economic growth, even under authoritarian regimes, will lead to democracy or inclusive political institutions.

eu should recognize that just helping build authoritarian regimes' economies does not in fact lead to democracy

and this move seems to go against the idea of the eu;
everyone inside enjoys free trade, but have to adhere to the same rules and standards
everyone outside, is . . . outside, because they don't