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A group of 17 House members wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Monday to call on the administration to mount a trade probe into unfair trade practices in international rice markets.

“We applaud your recent efforts to initiate a series of Section 301 investigations to address unfair actions by trading partners,” the letter, led by Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., reads, referring to two new trade probes looking into forced labor and manufacturing overcapacity. 

The 15 Republicans and two Democrats argued that surging rice imports in recent years and market-distorting subsidies from foreign governments warrant a similar rice-specific probe. 

The investigation, they say, should cover, at minimum, India, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Brazil and the European Union.

Rice, which has long been overshadowed by corn and other row crops, has been given a more prominent seat at the table under the Trump administration.

At a White House event to unveil $12 billion in farm aid in December, Meryl Kennedy, a business owner and second-generation rice grower from northeast Louisiana, sat next to President Donald Trump and outlined the rice industry’s concerns over the threat subsidized rice imports pose to U.S. farmers.

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The administration also filed a fourth notification at the World Trade Organization accusing India of exceeding its subsidy limits for its domestic rice industry.

Following the Supreme Court’s revocation of Trump’s emergency tariffs, USTR listed rice among the industries that could soon see Section 301 investigations.

During a recent comment period on the two investigations underway, the U.S. rice industry argued that the probes should be expanded to cover rice, with USA Rice calling for at least a 65% tariff on imports from select economies to offset unfair trade practices and labor violations within their domestic industries.

Without tariffs, the U.S.’ $2.4 billion in annual rice exports and more than 125,000 industry jobs are under threat, the group argued.

“The U.S. rice industry is at a crossroads,” the lawmakers argued. We “need an effective tariff policy to hold our competitors accountable and ensure producers in our states can compete on a more level playing field.”

Source : agri-pulse