I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1376 

To require a report on the continuing participation of Cambodia in the 

Generalized System of Preferences. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 26, 2019 

Mr. LOWENTHAL (for himself and Mr. CHABOT) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To require a report on the continuing participation of 

Cambodia in the Generalized System of Preferences. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cambodia Trade Act 

5 of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power 

9 in Cambodia since 1985 and is the longest-serving 

10 leader in Southeast Asia. 


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1 (2) The Paris Peace Accords in 1991 provided 

2 a vital framework, supported by the United States, 

3 European Union, and Japan, intended to help Cam4 bodia undertake a transition to democracy, including 

5 through elections and multiparty democracy. 

6 (3) For more than 25 years, the United States 

7 Government has provided hundreds of millions of 

8 dollars in development aid and other types of assist9 ance to the people of Cambodia, including pref10 erential trade treatment. 

11 (4) In 1997, the United States included Cam12 bodia in the Generalized System of Preferences 

13 (GSP) program, which extends specialized duty-free 

14 exports to developing nations. 

15 (5) The Trade Act of 1974 establishes condi16 tions of eligibility for inclusion in GSP, including 

17 ‘‘whether or not other major developed countries are 

18 extending generalized preferential tariff treatment to 

19 such country’’, and ‘‘whether or not such country 

20 has taken or is taking steps to afford to workers in 

21 that country (including any designated zone in that 

22 country) internationally recognized worker rights’’. 

23 (6) The two sectors in Cambodia’s economy 

24 that benefits from GSP are garment and handbag 

25 production. The garment industry is the largest emVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Mar 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1376.IH H1376

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1 ployer in Cambodia’s economy and accounts for 

2 nearly half of gross domestic product growth. The 

3 sector employs more than 700,000 Cambodians, 

4 most of whom are women. In 2018, Human Rights 

5 Watch warned that these women are often subjected 

6 to forced overtime and pregnancy-based discrimina7 tion, and denied paid maternity leave. 

8 (7) In 2015, Human Rights Watch released a 

9 broader study on the garment sector in Cambodia 

10 with the following finding: ‘‘[Labor rights abuses] 

11 include forced overtime and retaliation against those 

12 who sought exemption from overtime, lack of rest 

13 breaks, denial of sick leave, use of underage child 

14 labor, and the use of union-busting strategies to 

15 thwart independent unions.’’. 

16 (8) In October 2017, the Office of the United 

17 States Trade Representative (USTR) announced a 

18 new triennial process to assess GSP beneficiary 

19 country eligibility. The first assessment period cov20 ered 25 Asian and Pacific Island GSP beneficiary 

21 countries. For each such country, USTR and other 

22 United States Government agencies examined the 

23 country’s policies and practices related to each of 

24 the 15 eligibility criteria established by Congress, in25 cluding respecting arbitral awards in favor of United 


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1 States citizens or corporations, combating child 

2 labor, respecting internationally recognized worker 

3 rights, providing adequate and effective intellectual 

4 property protection, reducing barriers to services 

5 trade and investment, and providing the United 

6 States with equitable and reasonable market access. 

7 In April 2018, USTR announced that it is reviewing 

8 the eligibility of India, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan in 

9 the GSP program based on concerns about the coun10 tries’ compliance with the program. This review did 

11 not mention Cambodia. 

12 (9) In the 2017 Human Rights Report, the De13 partment of State warned: ‘‘Labor inspectors did not 

14 enforce labor standards in the informal sector or in 

15 unlicensed workplaces. In the formal sector, sources 

16 reported labor inspectors conducted routine inspec17 tions only in registered garment and footwear fac18 tories, where the incidence of child labor remained 

19 extremely low.’’. 

20 (10) In its country-specific Cambodia report in 

21 2017, the Department of Labor stated: ‘‘When child 

22 labor inspections do occur, they are concentrated in 

23 the city of Phnom Penh, as well as in the provincial, 

24 formal-sector factories producing goods for export, 

25 such as textiles and garments.’’. 


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1 (11) In 2018, the Department of Labor re2 leased a report on goods produced by child labor 

3 pursuant to the Trafficking Victims Protection Re4 authorization Act of 2005, and identified Cambodia 

5 as one of four countries, including the People’s Re6 public of China, which produces textiles with child 

7 labor. 

8 (12) The European Union established ‘‘Every9 thing But Arms’’ (EBA) in 2001, a comparable 

10 GSP program, which included Cambodia. The Euro11 pean Union began the formal process of reviewing 

12 Cambodia’s inclusion in EBA in 2018 in response to 

13 Prime Minister Hun Sen’s authoritarian manipula14 tion of the 2018 general elections, which included 

15 imprisoning Cambodia National Rescue Party 

16 (CNRP) President Kem Sokha, dissolving CNRP, 

17 and closing independent newspapers and radio sta18 tions. 

19 (13) On February 11, 2019, the European 

20 Commission launched a procedure that could lead to 

21 suspension of Cambodia from EBA trade pref22 erences. In the announcement the Commission stat23 ed: ‘‘Following a period of enhanced engagement, in24 cluding a fact-finding mission to Cambodia in July 

25 2018 and subsequent bilateral meetings at the highVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 Mar 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1376.IH H1376

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1 est level, the Commission has concluded that there 

2 is evidence of serious and systematic violations of 

3 core human rights and labour rights in Cambodia, in 

4 particular of the rights to political participation as 

5 well as of the freedoms of assembly, expression and 

6 association. These findings add to the longstanding 

7 EU concerns about the lack of workers’ rights and 

8 disputes linked to economic land concessions in the 

9 country.’’. 

10 SEC. 3. REPORT ON THE CONTINUING PARTICIPATION OF 

11 CAMBODIA IN THE GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF 

12 PREFERENCES. 

13 (a) REPORT.—Not later than 90 days after the date 

14 of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit 

15 to the appropriate committees of Congress a report setting 

16 forth the following: 

17 (1) A determination as to whether, if its status 

18 as such were reviewed, the Government of Cambodia 

19 would meet the criteria in sections 501 and 502(c) 

20 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2461, 2462(c)) 

21 for designation as— 

22 (A) a beneficiary developing country; or 

23 (B) a least-developed beneficiary develop24 ing country. 


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1 (2) A decision as to whether the application of 

2 duty-free treatment under the Generalized System of 

3 Preferences to the Government of Cambodia should 

4 be withdrawn, suspended, or limited pursuant to sec5 tion 502(d) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 

6 2462(d)). 

7 (b) FORM.—The report required by subsection (a) 

8 shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include 

9 a classified annex. 

10 (c) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS DE11 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate commit12 tees of Congress’’ means— 

13 (1) the Committee on Finance of the Senate; 

14 and 

15 (2) the Committee on Ways and Means of the 

16 House of Representatives. 

Æ 


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