KARAH JANEVIVIUS
USA Rice
Italy’s Agriculture Minister, Francesco Lollobrigida, went viral recently for a video in which he said imported rice was hurting the country’s farmers and urging Italian consumers to “check the labels and choose Italian.” An agriculture minister promoting his constituents seems innocent. However, the statement is rooted in protectionism, Europeans are acting on it, and we get it.
Following World War II, Western allies sought to rebuild the international trading system to avoid protectionism and build out a mutually beneficial goal of “free” trade. For decades, the U.S. rice industry has supported this notion of free trade.
But reality has fallen short of those ambitions. Today, the global rice arena is filled with protectionism, driven by governments that over-subsidize their industry and manipulate the market through policy interventions. And it’s all overseen by a World Trade Organization that has difficulty enforcing its rulings of fair trade.
In Europe and around the world, we’ve seen governments increasingly look to domestic politics, food security, and cultural importance to defend trade restrictive actions.
In April, the European Union updated their Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), that like the U.S. program, provides preferential market access for developing countries. The GSP encompasses the Everything but Arms initiative targeting least developing countries. Beginning January 1, 2027, a new automatic safeguard mechanism would automatically trigger a tariff if imports exceed 10-year historical averages by 45 percent.
If rice imports from a beneficiary country surge above its 10-year average, the EU will suspend duty-free treatment for the rest of the year and introduce a tariff rate quota for the following year to prevent market disruption.
The measure didn’t go far enough for some, leading to Lollobrigida’s plea directly to Italian consumers to do their part. Facing declining yields from climate pressure, Italian officials contend that domestic rice producers cannot compete with large volumes of duty-free imports.
Italy is not alone. Ministers in Greece and Spain have also spoken up on behalf of their rice producers. Together, the three countries make up approximately 85 percent of the EU’s total rice output, with Italy accounting for nearly half.
Our rice farmers are facing similar challenges: climate change, soaring input costs, artificially depressed prices, and foreign governments essentially removing all risk for their growers to flood the U.S. and other markets with cheap, low-quality rice.
Bobby Hanks, Louisiana rice miller and chair of USA Rice’s International Trade Policy Committee, has been very vocal calling for the U.S. government to get in on the action aggressively.
“For years, we have been raising concerns with countries’ retreat from their free trade commitments, forging ahead with protectionist policies. Our preferential market access with our trading partners is dwindling and meanwhile imports are flowing into the United States essentially free of charge,” he said. “This is why we need USTR to launch a Section 301 investigation and impose durable rice-specific tariffs. We need to reclaim our most reliable duty-free market right here at home.” Andiamo! ∆
KARAH JANEVIVIUS The author is director of trade policy for USA Rice.
