25 January 2004	Sunday	02 Zilhaj 1424

KARACHI, Jan 24: The European Commission (EC) has given temporary relief on Pakistani super basmati and karnal rice for a period of three months once again including it in the abatement list.

According to a message received here from Brussels, the headquarters of European Commission, on Saturday, the EC has agreed to certain amendments in its regulation.

The EC's amended regulation, however, has given this relief for only those import contracts, which had been signed by December 31, 2003. This means that the Commission would continue to accept Certificates of Authenticity issued by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) till March 31, 2004.

Since there had been a number of other complaints from the European Union (EU) member states challenging the 'origin' and had also raised the issue of fraud in supply of rice, the EC has also referred to the assurances given by the government to the effect that it had agreed to DNA tests on samples that the Commission may ask for.

This means that the agreed amendments in the EC Regulation has put some strings to keep Pakistani exporters of basmati and karnal rice under pressure and indirectly work as a check on imports of rice from Pakistan.

Nevertheless, exporters welcoming the EC decision are of the view that this was an unusual relief allowed by the Commission to any country and it was going to give excellent opportunity to exporters to benefit by making maximum exports from the current year bumper rice harvest.

Former chairman, Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) Abdul Rahim Janoo told Dawn that strong lobbying by an official team headed by secretary commerce Kamal Afsar which has recently visited eight EU member states with regard to anti-dumping issue on bedlinen has been the main factor for favourable outcome.

On an average Pakistan exports brown rice of super basmati and karnal qualities to the EU member states worth $50 to $60 million per annum. The commission's decision to once again include the brown rice in the abatement list would help withdraw import duty at the rate of 250 euro per ton. This would help Pakistani rice to be competitive in the EU market.

Meanwhile, there were strong indications that under Article 28, the EU was going to review its Agriculture Policy in September this year which may help in resolving this issue once for all, rice exporters said.

The European Commission on December 23, 2003 excluded Pakistan's karnal and super basmati rice from the abatement list resulting in the imposition of import duty at the rate of 250 euro per ton. This put rice exporters from Pakistan at a difficult situation as they could not compete in European market against rice imports from other countries.