The European Union (EU) is set to curb rice imports from India, Pakistan and other Asian countries as part of its move to protect its growers and millers. The curbs will be imposed through a safeguard mechanism, documents accessed by businessline showed.
The move comes despite the EU committing itself to a free trade agreement (FTA) with India, after 11 of 23 chapters agreed upon already.
“This is like shutting one door, while opening another,” said a rice industry source.
Latest move
In the latest initiative, the European Council and Parliament have decided to come up with a “specific automatic safeguard mechanism” for basmati and non-basmati rice imports, which targets exports from India and other Asian producers.
On December 1 (Monday), the Council and Parliament agreed to use a specific automatic safeguard mechanism for rice imports, through a tariff rate quota system.
If there is a significant surge of rice imports above the historical average imports to the EU, the safeguard mechanism will come into play. It will ensure that shipments are subject to most favoured nation (MFN ) tariffs for a specific period to protect the EU rice market.
The provisional agreement will now be endorsed by the Council and Parliament before being formally adopted. The legislation will come into force from January 1, 2027.
Turning oligopolistic?
A note prepared by the Council of the EU on November 12, 2025, said EU imports from third countries are expected to reach 1.5 million tonnes, mainly from India, Pakistan and EBA (“Everything but Arms”) countries — primarily Myanmar and Cambodia — which enjoy a preferential zero customs tariff on all types of rice and for all stages of processing.
“Looks like the rice market will shift from being free to oligopolistic in Europe. Less than a dozen players in Europe will benefit but exporters of packaged and husked rice from India will likely be affected,” said S Chandrasekaran, a New Delhi-based analyst.
Some 1.42 lakh tonnes (lt) of rice go in packaged form. The move is seen as an effort by European rice millers to promote their own brand. However, sales of packaged basmati or specialty rice such as Ponni or Sona Masuri are around 48,000 tonnes.
The EU imposed safeguard duty on rice imports from Myanmar and Cambodia in 2019. It expired in 2022. Discussions for the current proposals started in 2022, said Chandrasekaran.
Main targets
In the Article 28 negotiation of General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 2004-05, the EU was importing 6 lt. Currently, its rice imports are 2.3 million tonnes (mt).
When the negotiations for access to the EU rice rice market were held, Cambodia and Myanmar were not in the global market. They now together ship 10 lt.
The note referred to violations such as human rights and higher levels of tricyclazole. “Nonetheless, in some exporting countries there are cases of violations of human rights (e.g., child labour exploitation) or use of active substances banned in the EU or applied in quantities that exceed EU regulatory limits (e.g., high levels of tricyclazole),” the note said.
“These are targeted at India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Cambodia,” another source in the rice trade said.
Going defensive
The problem for India and Pakistan is that during 2004-05, brown or husked rice exports made up 80-90 per cent of total shipments. Now, they are down to 50 per cent with milled rice making up the rest. At the same time, exports from India and Pakistan are up five times since 2004. Only shipments from Thailand and Vietnam have remained unchanged and they may not be affected much.
Minutes of the Civil Dialogue Group (CDG) on Agricultural Markets – Rice held in July this year show that the European Union “will maintain a very defensive position and not make any concessions that would negatively impact the rice sector in the EU”.
“In the rice sector, it was made clear to India that rice is a highly sensitive product,” the European Council told the CDG.
Though the EU is pointing to protection of its rice growers, mainly dominated by Italy and Spain, rice production has dropped about 10 per cent in the past two decades from 1.64 mt to 1.47 mt . However, the acreage remains intact at 4 lakh hectares (lh).
No impact on farmers
“This means imports, which are up over four times since the EU signed GATT pact, have not affected farmers,” said the industry source.
Amid these developments, the European Commission will take up the GSP Safeguard Clause for rice imports from EBA countries as mooted by the Federation of European Rice Millers (FERM) on Friday.
The federation has called for an urgent revision of the common customs tariff that “has remained unchanged since 2004” to strengthen the protection for EU rice production.
FERM has sought a hike in duty for packaged rice imports into the EU, providing targeted safeguards for finished consumer goods. It has sought a higher tariff for husked and milled rice that current World Trade Organisation (WTO) schedules would “reflect modern market realities”.
New body EURice
Pointing out that the WTO-bound rates for semi-milled and wholly-milled rice were less than €200 a tonne for semi and wholly milled rice, the federation said the EU should consider imposing €416. FERM has sought raising duty on husked (brown) rice by over four times to €264/tonne.
FERM said continuous concessions on rice made by the European Union to third countries generated “dramatic distortions” in the internal market.
In a related development, eight rice-producing countries in Europe have decided to form an alliance, EURice, to meet the “range of challenges” they are currently facing in trade-related issues.
They have decided on a rotating annual presidency among the members, meeting regularly as a permanent coordination group to address the sector’s issues.
Eyeing opportunity
Industry sources said the targets are husked rice which make up 5 lt, broken rice (6 lt) and milled rice that makes up 1.2 mt.
“FERM sees this as an opportunity to force importers to ship in paddy and convert it to paddy. In turn, the EU millers will package the rice and sell it in retail,” said the source.
The latest move could force large exporters to set up processing plants like Dawat, which has installed a unit in the Netherlands.
“We still have a window to work through the India-EU FTA to protect our interests. To defend our exports, we need a close watch on big developments in market access. We should count such classic cases, which have become barriers to market access for our exports,” said Chandrasekaran.
Published on December 4, 2025
