COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION

of 11 February 2019

on the initiation of the procedure for temporary withdrawal of the tariff preferences provided to the Kingdom of Cambodia under Article 19 of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012

(2019/C 55/07)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 applying a scheme of generalised tariff preferences and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 732/2008 (1), and in particular Article 19(3) thereof,

After consulting the Generalised Preferences Committee,

Whereas:

(1) Part A of Annex VIII to Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 lists the core human and labour rights Conventions of the United Nations (UN) and of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

(2) Article 19(1) of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 provides for the temporary withdrawal of the special incentive arrangement referred to in Article 1(2) of that Regulation in respect of all or of certain products originating in a beneficiary country, for reasons of serious and systematic violation of the principles laid down in the conventions listed in Part A of Annex VIII thereof.

(3) Reports, statements and information of the UN and of the ILO available to the Commission, as well as other publicly available reports and information from other relevant sources (2), point to serious and systematic violations by Cambodia of the principles of, in particular, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, No 87, and the Convention concerning the Application of the Principles of the Right to Organise and to Bargain Collectively, No 98.

(4) The Commission has examined the information available and found that it constitutes sufficient grounds to justify the initiation of the procedure for temporary withdrawal of the tariff preferences provided under Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012. The procedure would further allow the Commission to determine whether a temporary withdrawal of the special incentive arrangement is justified,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1 The procedure set out in Article 19 of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 for temporary withdrawal of the tariff preferences provided to the Kingdom of Cambodia under Article 1(2) of that Regulation is initiated. The Notice of initiation of the procedure for temporary withdrawal of the tariff preferences provided to the Kingdom of Cambodia under Regulation (EU) No 978/2012, as set out in the Annex to this Decision, is approved.

Article 2 The Notice of initiation of the procedure for temporary withdrawal of the tariff preferences provided to the Kingdom of Cambodia under Regulation (EU) No 978/2012, as set out in the Annex to this Decision, shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Done at Brussels, 11 February 2019. For the Commission The President Jean-Claude JUNCKER

(1) OJ L 303, 31.10.2012, p. 1.

(2) See most recently the Report by the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia of 15 August 2018 (A/HRC/39/73), the addendum thereto of 7 September 2018 (A/HRC/39/73/Add. 1) and the 2018 ILO Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of the Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) p. 60.