Prime Minister Hun Sen has played down the possible significance of the EU withdrawing Cambodia’s preferential trade treatment over human rights concerns.
As EU officials arrived in Cambodia to assess the situation, Hun Sen told garment workers in Pursat province the Cambodian economy could stay afloat without the added competitiveness provided by the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme.
Speaking on Wednesday, Hun Sen said: If they grant us the free trade scheme, we cannot become a rich country, but if they withdraw it, we are also not going to die.”