KAMPONG SPEU, CAMBODIA - Trach looks like any other ordinary rural Cambodian village on the fringes of the municipal district of Chbar Mon in Kampong Speu province, with its dusty and bumpy roads surrounded by paddy fields and the standing palm trees for which the province is known.
This village in the Ka Haeng commune of the Samraong Tong district is steps from National Road 4, which connects the capital city of Phnom Penh with Sihanoukville, the primary seaport. As the nation's garment manufacturing industry expands, National Road 4 guides it west to the southwest coast.
Krech Thon is at home as her children and neighbors gather for a drink. Workers, many of them from the garment factories, have returned to their homes for one week to celebrate the annual late-September ancestral Buddhist festival, Pchum Ben.
It is hard to find a single household in Trach that does not have at least one family member, usually a younger one, employed in the garment industry.
Relying on the garment factories – directly and indirectly – Trach village is likely to be hit hard if the European Union revokes the preferential trade arrangement Cambodia enjoys under the scheme, which permits the duty-free export of all products, except for weapons and ammunition, to the EU.
The EU is considering revocation because it is concerned that Cambodia’s increasingly authoritarian government violated the agreement when the Supreme Court dissolved the country's main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, in November 2017, and Prime Minister Hun Sen launched a crackdown on civil society organizations and the media that continues. His ruling Cambodian People’s Party won all 125 seats in the National Assembly in 2018.
Without its EBA status, Cambodia would lose its preferential access to the EU market, which, according to the World Bank, buys 40% of .
If Cambodia loses its EBA status, exports to the 28-nation bloc would face a tariff of $700 million annually, according to government estimates. Loss of EBA status would also shred a key competitive edge Cambodia enjoys.
The EU told VOA Khmer in August that it would announce a decision February 12.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Hun Sen traveled to Europe and secured the backing of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria for continuing EBA preferences for Cambodia.
The EBA initiative, meant to aid developing nations, has done just that in Cambodia.
Krech Thon, a longtime resident of her village, has seen changes over the years. “People are getting a little better off with more brick-made houses and fences, and more young people drinking,” she told VOA Khmer with a laugh.
All four of Krech Thon’s four children work in Phnom Penh garment factories. And when factories appeared near the village, she began selling food to the workers.
The importance [of the factories] is that my children are employed and I myself have a business opportunity to sell foods out there so that we have a combined higher income,” she said.
Of the 115 households in the village, accounting for about 570 people, 75% of the residents rely on working in the garment factories or selling food to those employed by them, said Svay Tem, the village chief.
Ten years ago, as garment and luggage factories began arriving along the National Road 4, Phan Sorphea began selling food, including fried fish, rice and meatballs, to the workers.
“Although I did not plan it, I have this as my main source of income now,” Phan Sorphea, 37, said, adding she earns between 40,000 to 60,000 riel [$9 to $15] per day after expenses.
“I could also join the factories as a worker, but I decided to remain a food vendor so that I could have enough money to spend every day, although as a worker, you have a salary at the end of the month,” she added. “It is a matter of choice.”
But she, as is true of almost all the villagers in Trach, knows nothing about the possible EBA revocation. Not even Kong Sina, the wife of Trach village chief Svay Tem, knows about tensions between the Cambodian government and the EU.
Of the couple’s five children, four work in the village-based factories, making suitcases and footwear destined for Europe and America. Kong Sina said she focused on her business and had close to no knowledge of current Cambodian affairs, such as the EBA investigation.
“I only see the trucks carrying the products packed in big [shipping containers], but I have no idea where they travel to,” she said, adding that she understands the factories contribute to local prosperity.