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

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.

ANNEX

1. Introduction

(1) The Kingdom of Cambodia (‘Cambodia’ or ‘the Beneficiary Country’) benefits from tariff preferences provided under the special arrangement for the least-developed countries — Everything But Arms (‘EBA’) — under Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council applying a Scheme of Generalised Preferences (1).

(2) In accordance with Article 19(1) of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012, the tariff preferences granted under that Regulation may be temporarily withdrawn in whole or in part for reasons of serious and systematic violations of the principles laid down in the United Nations (UN) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions listed in Part A of Annex VIII to Regulation (EU) No 978/2012.

(3) Since 2017, the European Commission (‘the Commission’) and the European External Action Service have engaged actively with the Kingdom of Cambodia and involving relevant stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, international organisations, social partners, and businesses on several issues affecting human and labour rights (2).

2. Legal basis

(4) Where the Commission considers that there are sufficient grounds justifying temporary withdrawal of those tariff preferences on the basis of the reasons referred to in Article 19(1) of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012, it is to adopt an implementing act to initiate the procedure for temporary withdrawal in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 39(2) of that Regulation (3).

(5) Recent information as well as reports of the UN and ILO available to the Commission, including the Cambodia UN Country Team Report in the context of Cambodia's third Universal Periodic Review cycle, the report on the Role and Achievements of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in assisting the Government and people of Cambodia in the promotion and protection of human rights (4), the Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia on 27 July 2017 (5), the UNSR end of mission statement of 14 March 2018, the Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia of 15 August 2018 (6), the Addendum thereto of 7 September 2018 (7) and the reiteration by the UN Special Rapporteur in her end-of-mission statement of 8 November 2018 of the concerns expressed in her addendum report of 7 September 2018, as well as other publicly available reports and information from other relevant sources, including non-governmental organisations, point to serious and systematic violations of the principles laid down in the conventions listed in Annex VIII to Regulation (EU) No 978/2012, and in particular the following:

— International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

— Convention concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, No 87,

— Convention concerning the Application of the Principles of the Right to Organise and to Bargain Collectively, No 98,

— International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

(6) Having analysed the abovementioned information and determined that there are sufficient grounds to justify the initiation of a proceeding, the Commission has initiated the procedure for temporary withdrawal pursuant to Article 19 of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012.

3. Procedure

(8)

3.1. Monitoring and Evaluation Period

(7) The Commission shall monitor and evaluate the situation in the Beneficiary Country concerned for six months from the date of publication of the present notice in the

Official Journal of the European Union

(8) The Commission shall seek all information it considers necessary, inter alia, the available assessments, comments, decisions, recommendations and conclusions of the relevant monitoring bodies of the conventions, as appropriate.

(9) In drawing its conclusions, the Commission shall assess all relevant information. The adopted act shall be based, inter alia, on evidence received.

3.2. Report on findings

(10) Within three months from the expiry of the monitoring and evaluation period, the Commission shall submit a report on its findings and conclusions to the Beneficiary Country. The Beneficiary Country has the right to submit its comments on the report. The period for comments shall not exceed one month.

3.3. End of the procedure

(11) The present procedure shall be concluded within 12 months from the date of publication of the present notice in the

Official Journal of the European Union

. The Commission shall decide to either terminate the temporary withdrawal procedure or temporarily withdraw tariff preferences provided under the preferential arrangements referred to in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012.

3.4. Parties to the Procedure

(12) Parties to the present procedure are the Beneficiary Country and third parties that make their views known in writing by sending to the Commission all relevant information.

3.4.1. Beneficiary Country

(13) The Commission shall provide the Beneficiary Country concerned with every opportunity to cooperate during the monitoring and evaluation period.

3.4.2. Third parties

(14) Subject to the provisions of this Notice, third parties may make their views known in writing, submit information and provide supporting evidence. Unless otherwise specified, this information and supporting evidence must reach the Commission within one month of the date of publication of this Notice in the

Official Journal of the European Union

. The Commission shall take into account the views submitted by those third parties where they are backed by sufficient evidence.

3.5. Possibility to be heard by the Commission investigation services

(15) The Beneficiary Country concerned and third parties which have submitted information supported by sufficient evidence may request to be heard by the Commission services. Any request to be heard should be made in writing and should specify the reasons to be heard orally. The request must reach the Commission at the latest one month after the date of publication of this Notice in the

Official Journal of the European Union

3.6. Instructions for making written submissions, sending correspondence and access the constituted file

(16) All written submissions and correspondence exchanged within this procedure are to be made in English or in one of the other official languages of the Union.

(17) All written submissions, including the information requested in this Notice for which confidential treatment is requested shall be labelled ‘Confidential’ (9).

(18) Each request for confidential treatment shall state the reasons why the information is confidential. If the supplier of the information wishes neither to make it public nor to authorise its disclosure in general terms or in the form of a summary and if it appears that the request for confidentiality is unjustified, the information concerned may be disregarded. Information shall in any case be considered to be confidential if its disclosure is likely to have a significantly adverse effect upon the supplier or the source of such information or natural or legal persons mentioned in the information.

(19) Parties to the procedure providing ‘Confidential’ information are required to furnish non-confidential summaries of it, which shall be labelled ‘For inspection by the parties to the procedure’. These summaries should be sufficiently detailed to permit a reasonable understanding of the substance of the information submitted in confidence. Neither information of a confidential nature nor any information provided on a confidential basis received shall be disclosed without specific permission from the supplier of such information. Information received pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 shall be used only for the purpose for which it was requested.

(20) Parties to the procedure are invited to make all submissions and requests by email including scanned powers of attorney, with the exception of voluminous replies which shall be submitted on a CD-ROM or DVD by hand or by registered mail.

(21) By using email, parties to the procedure express their agreement with the rules applicable to electronic submissions contained in the document ‘CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IN GSP procedures’ published on the website of the Directorate-General for Trade.

(22) Parties to the procedure must indicate their name, address, telephone and a valid email address and they should ensure that the provided email address is a functioning official business (10) email, which is checked on a daily basis. Once contact details are provided, the Commission will communicate with the parties to the procedure by email only, unless they explicitly request to receive all documents from the Commission by another means of communication or unless the nature of the document to be sent requires the use of a registered mail. For further rules and information concerning correspondence with the Commission, including principles that apply to submissions by email, parties to the procedure should consult the communication instructions referred to in point 21.

Commission address for correspondence:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Trade

Directorate D

Office: CHAR 08/173

1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË

Email: TRADE-EBA-CAMBODIA-TW@ec.europa.eu

Parties to the procedure may request access to the constituted file using the above contact details.

3.7. Hearing Officer

(23) Beneficiary country and third parties which have submitted information supported by sufficient evidence may also request the intervention of the Hearing Officer. The Hearing Officer reviews requests for access to the constituted file, disputes regarding the confidentiality of documents, requests for extension of time limits, requests to be heard and any other request concerning the rights of defence of parties to the procedure as may arise during the proceeding. The Hearing Officer may organise hearings with the Beneficiary Country or third parties concerned and mediate between the Beneficiary Country or third parties concerned and the Commission services to ensure that the rights of defence are being fully exercised.

(24) A request for a hearing with the Hearing Officer should be submitted in writing and should specify the reasons for the request. The Hearing Officer will examine the reasons for the requests. These hearings should only take place if the issues have not been settled with the Commission services in due course.

(25) Third parties which have submitted information supported by sufficient evidence may request the intervention of the Hearing Officer to verify whether their observations have been considered by the Commission. The written request shall be submitted no later than 10 days after expiry of the period provided to make their views known referred to in point 14. Where hearing requests are submitted outside the relevant timeframes, the Hearing Officer will also examine the reasons for such late requests, the nature of the issues raised and the impact of those issues on the rights of defence, having due regard to the interests of good administration and the timely completion of the procedure.

(26) The relevant Commission services shall participate at all oral hearings of the Hearing Officer with the Beneficiary Country or with third parties concerned. For further information and contact details parties to the procedure may consult the Hearing Officer's web pages on DG Trade's website: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/trade-policy-and-you/contacts/hearing-officer/

3.8. Processing of personal data

(27) Any personal data collected in this investigation will be treated in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council (11).

(1) 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 (

OJ L 303, 31.10.2012, p. 1

(2) Report on the Generalised Scheme of Preferences covering the period 2016-2017 (COM(2018) 36 final of 19.1.2018).

(3) The Generalised Preferences Committee was consulted on 29.1.2019.

(4) A/HRC/36/32 and A/HRC/37/64

(5) A/HRC/36/61.

(6) A/HRC/39/73.

(7) A/HR/39/73/Add.1.

(8) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1083/2013 of 28 August 2013 establishing rules related to the procedure for temporary withdrawal of tariff preferences and adoption of general safeguard measures under Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 of the European Parliament and the Council applying a scheme of generalised tariff preferences (

OJ L 293, 5.11.2013, p. 16

(9) A ‘Confidential’ document is a document which is considered confidential pursuant to Article 38(4) of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012.

(10) If relevant.

(11) Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (

OJ L 8, 12.1.2001, p. 1