Producers are complaining about the government’s unfulfilled promises to place their crops in the market, and demanding an end to rice imports.
Producers in the Guanacaste area are protesting again, demanding that the government respects a promise agreed last November, which, according to the rice growers, would resolve the placement of more than five thousand tons of rice which has been stored in dry silos, both public and private, since September 2011.
The Costa Rican Administrative Court has rejected rice farmers’ request for precautionary measures on October's rice imports.
The request asked to deny entry authorization to 350,000 kilos of husked rice from Argentina, on the basis that it did not comply with the rule that stipulates that rice must be fortified in its country of origin.
An article on Nacion.com states: "They also appealed to the ministries of Foreign Trade, Economy and Health to have the grain confiscated.
The signing of the agreement between the government, representatives of the rice sector and growers puts an end to the conflict caused by administrative price-fixing.
The new agreement guarantees that 100% of the 2011 harvest (53,000 hectares) will be purchased from rice growers by the industrial sector.
One of the key points of the agreement, signed on Thursday 3 November, is that the Costa Rican government promises to implement measures to prevent unfair competition in national rice markets.
The Costa Rican rice sector is demanding that the government increases the controls for rice entering from Nicaragua.
Doubts about the true origin of rice coming into the country have led Costa Rican rice growers to request a review of rules of origin for imports, suspecting that the grain is entering in a triangular fashion.
Meanwhile, in Nicaragua, a country where rice production is insufficient to meet domestic demand, export of the grain is almost nonexistent, leading to suspicions that the rice is coming from other countries on the isthmus and then being transported to Costa Rica.
This time it was U.S. representatives who in a bilateral meeting expressed their anger to their Costa Rican counterparts over the excessive subsidy to rice farmers.
In 2010 $109 million was awarded in subsidies to the rice sector, a figure that exceeds by 700% the limit established in the Agreement on Agriculture by WTO.
"The meeting was chaired by the USA when the Committee on Agriculture of the WTO met, in which some 70 countries warned Costa Rica about incompliance", noted an article in Nacion.com
The amount of subsidy in 2010 was $109 million, 7 times greater than that authorized by the WTO, and has led to an increase in planted areas.
The Ministry of Foreign Trade in Costa Rica has released a statement which noted:
“Costa Ricans pay the fourth highest price for rice in the world.
The rice subsidy exceeded $109 million in 2010.
During 2010 $109 million in subsidies were awarded to the rice sector, reported the Government of Costa Rica to the World Trade Organization (WTO). This figure exceeds 700%, the limit set in the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) of WTO, the international treaty governing trade in agriculture in the world and whose law is the law of the Republic.”
The Costa Rican government is preparing an urgent proposal to solve its incompliance with trade regulations.
The proposal must be submitted by the end of September when the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agriculture Group meets. However, first it needs to be negotiated with domestic rice growers and exporters.
Fernando Ocampo, Foreign Trade vice-minister, told Nacion.com that, "the proposal will take into account four considerations: compliance with WTO rules, consumer protection, support for growers and industry interests".
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