With US President Donald Trump recently threatening to impose a fresh tariff of 36% on Cambodia, a number of garment workers in the Asian country fear losing their jobs.
While Trump has lowered the tariff to 36% from the originally planned 49%, Cambodia, which is the major exporter of clothing and textiles to the USA is one of the hardest hit countries. The workers there have additionally requested a further reduction in the 36% tariff, which is negotiable till the 1st of August.
However, Cambodia hasn’t released an official statement in response to the latest tariffs. In fact, the most recent response was in April to the AFP by Penn Sovicheat, the Ministry of Commerce spokesperson. Sovicheat did express that these tariffs were unreasonable.
Amid negotiations on tariff, Cambodia has already been paying a 10% standby rate but the tariff issue has become tighter for Cambodia with many of its factories being Chinese-owned. Moreover, the country has also been lately accused by The White House over becoming a transit point for China, which the Trump administration said can result in escaping a higher tariff rate as Cambodia has a comparatively lower rate than China.
This latest development in the tariff rate comes after the survey that was recently done by the Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which highlighted the tariff impact on the operational capacity of garment factories in Cambodia and the waning buyers’ confidence as a consequence of it.
