On Monday 18 June, the European Commission gave assurances that the safeguard investigation is now under way into imports of Indica rice from Cambodia and Burma/Myanmar. The investigation was triggered on 16 March at Italy's request.
"The Everything But Arms scheme grants free access to the EU market for products from least developed countries in order to help them get out of poverty, but European producers also need to be assured that they are not hurt by these imports. Consideration thus needs to be given to the opportunity to reintroduce duties and avoid EU countries paying a high price for this market opening", the Commission assured.
"After the NGO ships, we can even stop the ships that arrive in our ports laden with Cambodian rice. I am absolutely alongside Coldiretti (Ed: the confederation of Italian farmers)", Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said this weekend.
Coldiretti calls for "a stop to the zero-duty imports of Asian rice that compete unfairly with national and EU production". It also wants the EU safeguard clause to be activated "as soon as possible" against imports of Cambodian and Burmese rice, for which the 22.5 million tonnes that arrived on the Italian market in 2017 cut the prices of Italy's national producers by half.
The EU's safeguard investigation will be brought to an end in 12 months (see EUROPE 11989). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)