Not even the last desperate joint appeal of the Italian supply chain came to fruition. The Europarliament has definitively approved the regulation on tariff concessions for the least developed countries (the so-called Generalised System of Preferences) for the next ten years, leaving the ‘phantom’ clause on rice imports unchanged.
The vertiginous growth of foreign arrivals at very low costs, even of already processed and packaged products, will in fact be able to continue undisturbed, with good peace for the excellence of Made in Italy agro-industrial products. The safeguard clause contained in the broad system of concessions devised by Europe to support the growth of poorer countries provides for the reinstatement of tariffs only in the event of an increase in imports of more than 45% compared to the (already very high) average of the last ten years. According to the organisations’ calculations, more than 562 thousand tonnes per year at zero tariffs against a quantity considered sustainable of 200 thousand.
The attempt of an amendment in extremis tabled by MEP Carlo Fidanza (and supported by a long list of MEPs) to reduce the increase in the threshold above which European market protection would be triggered to at least 20% was to no avail. A blitz that risked blowing up the entire Spg dossier, which has been dragging on for years with an unfortunately highly negative outcome for the rice sector: too few producer countries (eight, with Italia alone accounting for over 50%) to move European sensitivity on the issue.
According to Copa-Cogeca, the confirmation of the ‘phantom clause’ puts at risk 100 thousand hectares of Indica-type rice in Europe at an estimated cost of 4 billion, against an estimated benefit of just 18 million for producers in the countries benefiting from the agreement. These include Cambodia and Myanmar, major producers and exporters to the EU with over 500 thousand tonnes, which have more than doubled in the last decade and come to cover almost a third of total European imports of 1.6 million tonnes (out of a consumption of 2.6), increasingly made up of ready-packed rice at unsustainable prices by European standards.
The new regulation, explains the director of Airi, the association of rice milling industries, Pietro Milani, therefore envisages an automatic safeguard for rice which, starting in 2027, will be activated when about 313 thousand tonnes of imports from Cambodia and 249 thousand tonnes from Myanmar are reached, for an overall threshold of about 562 thousand tonnes, above the highest recorded historical volumes. A paradox that makes the reintroduction of tariffs on milled rice of 175 euro per tonne inapplicable unless a slice of Italian and European production is cancelled. “A result,” Milani points out, “that is far removed from the requests of the supply chain, which during negotiations had urged the EU institutions to provide for the automatic reintroduction of tariffs when a threshold considered more appropriate to protect domestic production, at around 200 thousand tonnes, is reached.