Agricultural Trade Preferences in the EU Sector and Land Confiscation Incidents in Cambodia
In a series of events dating back to 2009, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights raised concerns about serious human rights violations in Cambodia's land sector. These violations were particularly evident in the expulsion of residing families from their farmland, often carried out brutally to make way for sugar companies.
The expansion of the sugar industry in Cambodia has been facilitated by influential Cambodian businessmen with government ties, who obtained access to land for foreign partners through a network of companies established for this purpose. Foreign sugar companies such as Mitr Phol and KSL have acquired more than 80,000 hectares of valuable farmland, displacing around 12,000 people in the process.
The European Union's "Everything but Arms" (EBA) trade initiative has significantly boosted sugar exports from Cambodia by granting duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market, except for arms and ammunition. This preferential treatment has encouraged the growth of Cambodia's sugar industry by improving its export competitiveness in Europe. In 2009, exports from Cambodia to the EU, primarily sugar, were valued at 751 million Euros, with three-quarters based on the EBA initiative.
However, the sugar exports under this initiative have been linked to serious human rights violations. Reports indicate that some Cambodian sugar plantations exporting to the EU have been involved in forced evictions, land grabbing, and exploitation of workers. These abuses have been documented by NGOs and international organizations, raising concerns about the ethical implications of benefiting from trade preferences without adequate safeguards for human rights.
In response, a coalition of national and international NGOs has been calling for a fundamental investigation of the EU trade preferences in the Cambodian sugar sector since July 2012. The European Parliament also called upon the Commission in October 2012 to investigate human rights abuses in connection to the granting of land concessions for the export of agricultural products to the EU. As of now, there has been no reported investigation by the European Commission into the human rights abuses in the Cambodian sugar sector.
Leases for the land concessions last up to 99 years and were completed quickly and discreetly, without tendering processes or social sustainability reports. This lack of transparency and accountability has further fueled concerns about the ethical implications of the EBA trade preferences.
The dual impact of the EBA scheme - enabling increased Cambodian sugar exports to the EU while being associated with significant human rights violations related to land and labor rights in the sugar sector - has prompted calls within the EU and beyond for stricter monitoring and enforcement of human rights standards linked to EBA trade benefits. The ongoing debate serves as a reminder of the need for responsible and ethical trade practices in the global economy.
- The European Union's preference for trade with Cambodian sugar companies, as part of the "Everything but Arms" initiative, has inadvertently financed the wealth-management endeavors of influential Cambodian businessmen.
- Amidst concerns about human rights abuses related to land and labor rights in the Cambodian sugar sector, there has been an emphasis on the need for stricter monitoring and enforcement of human rights standards to alleviate the wealth-management practices associated with these violations.
