The European Union expressed concern at the human rights situation in Cambodia as it gave the government a one-month deadline to respond to a report on its investigation before deciding whether to suspend trade benefits.
The EU has threatened to suspend the trade preferences over a crackdown on the opposition, non-governmental organisations and the media by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the Southeast Asian country of 16 million people for more than 34 years.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said it had finalised its preliminary report on suspending trade preferences and sent it to Cambodian authorities. It did not publish the report.
