3 million garment workers to be badly affected!
That’s what the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) fears as the monitoring time to determine whether Cambodia should enjoy tax-free export to European markets nears close.
On 12 Feb 2019, the European Commission had launched a 6-month investigation to determine whether Cambodia should continue enjoying duty-free exports to European Union (EU) under Everything But Arms (EBA).
6 months are over! European Commission will now present its findings to Cambodia in November, following which a final decision will be taken in February next year.
If at all Cambodia loses the facility to enjoy duty-free exports to EU, the suspension would be effective from August 2020.
GMAC has yet again called EU not to withdraw status and stressed that while the apparel industry employs 750,000 workers in Cambodia, EBA positively affects around 3 million workers and their families.
“Suspension of EBA benefits for our sector will result in large job losses across the garment, footwear and travel goods sector, and would not serve the EBA programme’s objective of poverty eradication and sustainable development,” said GMAC in a statement.
Source: https://in.apparelresources.com