Activate as soon as possible the safeguard clause to stop imports of Asian rice without duties, as it is competing unfairly with EU production. This is what the major agricultural organizations representing EU producers have asked for. These organizations are: Asaja (Spain), CAP (Portugal), Coldiretti (Italy), FNSEA (France), GAIA Epicheirin (Greece), and UPA (Spain). They addressed their request to President of the EU Council of Agriculture Ministers, Elisabeth Koestingwer, during the EU Agriculture Council. “We hope that the European Commission’s proposal to activate the safeguard clause will be adopted very soon,” said the organizations’ representatives two weeks before the Committee vote.
THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY ASIAN RICE
The European Commission has recently recognized the economic damages caused by the volumes of ‘Indica’ rice imports from Asia. That is why it proposed to reinstate for three years the tariffs on imports of rice from Cambodia and Burma, whose product was harvested exploiting labour and violating human rights. All this without forgetting what is happening to the Rohingya minority in Myanmar – forced to flee because of a violent repression. The European Commission also recognized that there have been significant human rights violations in Cambodia, in connection with the land grabbing phenomenon. According to producers, all this justifies the activation of the safeguard clause and the stop to subsidized imports. The goal is to stop unfair competition that caused the collapse of rice prices, allowing the two Asian countries to increase their exports to the EU from 9,000 tons in 2012 to 360,000 tons in 2017.