The EU is preparing to temporarily withdraw Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) rights for three years, according to Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF).
The EU’s temporary withdrawal of the GSP rights supposedly has nothing to do with the Rakhine issue. It comes after the EU member countries have called for protection of their interests.
Ye Min Aung, General Secretary of the MRF said: “The EU is creating a plan to review their national interest whether these processes can hamper the EU’s agricultural production as EU’s major rice production countries remonstrate against it. Under this plan, the EU prepares to carry out the temporary withdrawal of the GSP rights granted to Myanmar and Cambodia for three years. We have to be very careful about the usage of terms.”
“After the temporary withdrawal of the GSP rights, the EU will collect Euro 175 per ton on exports of rice and broken rice in the first year, Euro 150 in the second year and Euro 125 in the third year. Agricultural production in some EU countries will revive after three years. The EU will fix tax rates in order to remedy their losses for three years,” he added.
“Local rice exporters will not pay these taxes. It will be applied only to importers. EU countries which import rice from Vietnam and Thailand have to pay taxes. Now they don’t need to pay taxes for rice imports from Myanmar and Cambodia. So they import more rice from Myanmar and Cambodia,” he continued.
The temporary withdrawal of GSP rights is not a total ban on Myanmar’s rice export to the EU. It is just a revocation of tax relief.
The EU has given Myanmar time until November 19 to discuss about it. Currently, the Commerce Ministry and the MRF will negotiate with the EU. We have a plan to discuss about it with the EU whether the EU will collect taxes on broken rice, parboiled rice etc or not, he added.
In 2017-2018 FY, Myanmar exported over 400,000 tons of rice and broken rice to the EU, according to the MRF.
The countries which have got the GSP rights can enjoy tax exemption on exports to the EU.
