Cambodia's foreign ministry ... said a decision by the European Union to ramp up trade pressure on Cambodia over human rights concerns was an "extreme injustice", adding it risked destroying decades of development progress in the country.

… "The Cambodian government can only take this decision as an extreme injustice when the EU blatantly disregards the considerable progress made by the country, despite its recent tragic past," Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said ...

"By implementing these withdrawal measures, the European Commission risks negating twenty year's worth of development efforts," it added. 

… Over the past two decades it has been the world's sixth fastest-growing economy, with average GDP growth rate of 7.6 percent, according to the World Bank, largely due to its garment exports which are mostly bound for the EU and the United States.

Cambodia's exports to the European Union were worth 5 billion euros (4.37 billion pounds) last year, according to EU data,...