After years of discussions and months of intensive technical exchanges, the trilogue negotiations on the reform of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) concluded last night with a political agreement. While this long-awaited outcome finally closes a file that had been pending for several years, the European rice sector deeply regrets that the final compromise falls far short of ensuring a level playing field for EU farmers and processors.
Throughout the negotiation process, the European rice value chain, uniting producers and millers from across the Union, has consistently called for the inclusion of an automatic safeguard mechanism capable of responding to the exceptional increase in low-cost rice imports from Least Developed Countries. These imports have reached record levels of 547,000 tonnes this year, far exceeding the quantities that previously triggered safeguard measures in 2019.
The compromise reached in the final trilogue introduces a mechanism based on a ten-year average of imports (387,000 tonnes), with a 45% surge margin, leading to an activation threshold of 562,000 tonnes. The safeguard will be subject to annual review after its entry into force in 2027.
However, the threshold quantities established under the new mechanism have been designed to trigger only in what is defined as a “truly exceptional situation” for the rice market, using today’s historically high import levels as the baseline.
After four years of negotiations, during which the situation of the European rice sector has continuously deteriorated, it is deeply unfair that the definition of what constitutes an exceptional situation is now based on these inflated figures. The result is a safeguard that effectively ignores the long-standing pleas of the sector for meaningful protection.
In recent years, the structure of the European rice market has changed dramatically. While the EU’s total demand of around 2.8 million tonnes could be fully met by a balanced combination of domestic production and moderate imports, the share between the two has shifted from roughly 60/40 less than a decade ago to nearly 50/50 today. Successive years of drought have reduced EU output, leading to an increasing reliance on low-cost, duty-free imports to fill the gap. Even in 2025, a year of recovery and good production across Europe, imports have continued at record levels, displacing EU-grown rice from its own market. If this trend persists, European rice producers risk being permanently pushed out of the domestic market, with declining demand for EU rice, shrinking cultivation areas, and lasting financial harm to the sector.
While the safeguard mechanism is presented as automatic, the threshold set effectively renders it inoperative under current market conditions. The rice sector considers this a missed opportunity to provide genuine and timely protection against market disruption. For comparison, the last safeguard measure applied at 380,000 tonnes was already justified by the Commission as necessary to address injury to the sector. The new mechanism would therefore only activate under even more extreme import volumes, when the damage would already be irreversible.
We highly appreciate the constant efforts of the Members of Parliament who have been attentive to the sensitivities of the sector throughout the years of negotiations and we acknowledged the Danish Presidency’s efforts to close the GSP file. Yet, the outcome reflects a political compromise prioritising expediency over substance. As a result, a measure that could have provided meaningful protection to European producers has been weakened to the point of symbolic value, endangering the whole sector.
Fonte: Copa Cogeca
