GMAC appeals ILO to endorse EBA withdrawal postponement

GMAC representatives were invited on July 2, 2020 by Graeme Buckley, the director of ILO's office covering Cambodia, to consult about GMAC’s priorities for a document the ILO has titled the 'Garment Industry Call to Action', which was adopted on April 22, 2020. "This document is being promoted by the ILO, and endorsed by international buyers among others, as a response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the garment sector of Cambodia, and other countries worldwide," GMAC said in a statement on the consultation with the ILO.

The priorities identified in the Call to Action and the ILO’s invitation for the consultation with GMAC include how to support manufacturers to survive the economic dislocation caused by the pandemic and how to protect the income support needs of workers in the sector. "These are the correct concerns given the crisis caused by the drop in global apparel demand, particularly in the major export markets of the European Union and North America," the GMAC statement said.

Cambodia already has suffered some 400 factory suspensions and more than 150,000 job losses in the garment sector, with scores more factories and tens of thousands of additional workers at imminent risk.

"While GMAC appreciates the concerns and intentions behind the Call to Action, we have thus far seen no concrete benefit in terms of credit support programmes or the income support and social safety net needs for the workers in our sector. Moreover, we did not learn anything new from the consultation in terms of how such resources will be identified or mobilised from buyers, bilateral donors, or international financial institutions. Our crisis continues and grows worse," GMAC said.

Since the Call to Action is endorsed mostly by European buyers and is being generously supported by the Government of Germany, the single and immediate concern GMAC raised during the consultation was the looming second blow that the apparel, travel goods and footwear sectors in Cambodia face on August 12, with the scheduled withdrawal of €1 billion in trade benefits under the European Union’s EBA trade programme.

"GMAC explained to the ILO on behalf of those European interests that have endorsed the Call to Action that this second blow would lead to even more factory closures and displaced workers, and increase poverty in Cambodia," the statement said.

Hence, GMAC has asked the ILO and all the organisations endorsing the Call to Action, also endorse GMAC’s appeal, already conveyed in early June to the European Commission and European Parliament, that given the unanticipated impact of COVID-19 on Cambodia the European Commission’s decision, made in early February before the impact of COVID-19, to withdraw certain EBA benefits effective August 12 be reassessed and postponed for one year.

"If the concerns expressed in the April 22 Call to Action are to have any meaning in Cambodia, we also appeal to all of those that have endorsed it, including the ILO which is promoting it, to support GMAC’s urgent appeal to the European Commission and Parliament," the statement said.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)