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Swedish Parliamentarian Visits Opposition Leader in Cambodia

Leonie Kijewski

   PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - The Cambodian government will have to enact
   substantial political reforms if it wants to retain a preferential
   trade agreement with the European Union, a Swedish lawmaker has warned.
   Under the agreement, known as Everything But Arms, Cambodia can export
   goods to the EU duty free, but that arrangement is contingent on the
   nation complying with international conventions regarding human and
   labor rights.

   Cambodia needs to enact genuine democratic reforms, Asa Eriksson told
   Voice of America in an interview shortly after meeting opposition
   leader Kem Sokha at his house in Phnom Penh.

   "I haven't seen any progress. We did see small, small things happening
   in late autumn. But it's not enough at all. And I would say that '¦ to
   me, at least, it looks more like cosmetics: things that should tell us
   that the process is going in the right way, but I'm not sure that the
   government is willing to do the changes that are needed," she said.

   Eriksson is a member of the governing Social Democrats in Sweden and
   serves as their international trade spokesperson. She last visited
   Cambodia in 2017. That same year, Kem Sokha was arrested and his party,
   the Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, was forcibly dissolved.

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