MIPAAF, Bellanova writes to Hogan: "automatic entry of rice in the list of products excluded from export benefits"
"Pay close attention to the theme" and, above all, "provide for a clause that establishes the automatic insertion of rice" in the Cambodian list of products (including textiles, shoes, sugar, etc.) to be excluded from export benefits ( zero duties) under the European regulation called EBA.
Moral: no pass and no facilitation for Cambodian rice, due to the proven violation of human, civil and labor rights. "Choice on which the future of European and Italian rice growing in particular depends".
It is, in a nutshell, the content of the letter sent to the European Commissioner for Trade Phil Hogan by the Minister for Agricultural Food and Forestry Policies Teresa Bellanova.
After having already confirmed it during the meeting in Brussels with the Italian MEPs alongside the last Agrifish, Minister Bellanova therefore intended to reiterate once again the Italian position to Commissioner Hogan, urging a precise position of Europe in this sense.
"As you know," Bellanova writes to Hogan, "in the coming days the proposal for a delegated act with which the Commission intends to start the procedure for the temporary withdrawal of the tariff preferences granted to Cambodia under the EBA regime ". An appropriate "albeit heavy" measure, stigmatizes Bellanova, "in a regime acclaimed of continuous and repeated violations of human, civil and labor rights by the Cambodian Authorities against children, citizens and workers".
However, the letter continues, "rice does not appear in the list of products to which the Commission proposes the application of tariff preferences". Yet, "the European rice sector, although currently enjoying the safeguard clause - with a very limited duration - continues to be characterized by a serious market imbalance, also due to the progressive increases in imports of raw and processed rice from the Eba countries".
This is the reason why Bellanova urges "maximum attention" and "the need to include in the draft delegated act a clause that establishes the automatic insertion of rice, at the end of the time duration of the safeguard, in the list of exclusion from tariff preferences. Choice on which the future of European and Italian rice growing depends in particular ".