USA Raises Cambodia 2004 Quota To 14%

The United States has announced it will increase the quota of textiles imported from Cambodia by 14% in 2004 in response to the country’s efforts to improve labour conditions.

Currently, the two countries operate under a 1999 agreement meant to encourage labour rights, whereby the US Government can increase each year the quota of Cambodian-made garments it lets into the country at special low tariffs.

However, that agreement will end in December 2004, by which time Cambodia is expected to have become a member of the World Trade Organisation.

This latest increase, according to US embassy spokeswoman Heide Bronke, was less than the 18 per cent it could have been under the existing agreement because “there is still work to be done”.

Lingering irregularities included correct payment of wages, involuntary and excessive overtime and anti-union discrimination, an embassy statement claimed.

The garment industry is Cambodia’s main source of foreign revenue and accounts for 36%  of its economic output, earning up to US$1.3 billion annually.

More than 75% of its clothing exports go to the US under brand names including Gap, Banana Republic and Polo Ralph Lauren.

  Back to Index of January 2004