Ready to ship

TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- The American Institute of Taiwan's Agricultural Affairs Office reported that Taiwan authorities have lifted the longstanding ban on U.S. long grain rice.  Taiwan imposed an import ban on U.S. long grain rice immediately after the LibertyLink� incident in August 2006.  Since then, the issue has been raised in several bilateral engagements by the U.S. side, both technically and under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement annual meetings.

Taiwan's Agriculture and Food Agency has also scheduled two tenders of U.S.-origin long grain brown rice for December 10, with delivery in the May-June 2015 time frame.  This will be the first U.S. long grain rice tender since Taiwan joined the WTO in January 2002 and opened its market for rice imports.

One tender (1,500 MT) has a specification for minimum amylose content.  It is presumed this will be destined for making popular local products such as rice noodles and rice cakes. The long grain rice without minimum amylose content specifications will likely be used as table rice.

"Reportedly, consumer appetites in Taiwan are changing," said Jim Guinn, USA Rice Federation vice president of international promotion.  "They seem to be more accepting of long grain products in addition to the medium and short grain that is traditionally consumed there.  Taiwan also recently purchased southern medium grain rice for the first time in several years."

Contact:  Deborah Willenborg (703) 236-1444

WASHINGTON, DC -- Last Friday, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) filed an appeal to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) October ruling that the U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) rule was a violation of United States' WTO obligations.  This means that the WTO's appellate body has 60 days to report on the appeal and, based on the outcome of that report, WTO arbitration could begin as early as April 2015 if the United States remains out of compliance and Canada and Mexico continue to seek trade retaliation.

The COOL rule mandates that muscle cuts of meat be labeled for the country of origin where the animal was born, raised, and slaughtered, which foreign meat and livestock suppliers claim treats their goods unfairly.  Canada and Mexico brought a complaint against the United States to the WTO in August 2013. 

The U.S. decision to appeal the October ruling is another in a series of steps that will have to occur before Canada and Mexico are given permission by the WTO to retaliate against imports from the United States.  At this point, retaliation against U.S. products looks unlikely until the last quarter of 2015, though Canada has already released a list of U.S. products that would face a 100 percent duty, including U.S.-grown rice.

"We are obviously watching this issue very closely because of the potential impact on U.S. rice exports to Canada," said Bob Cummings, USA Rice Federation COO.  "As a member of the COOL Reform Coalition, we are urging the U.S. government to come into compliance with its WTO obligations so as to avoid retaliation."

Contact:  Kristen Dayton (703) 236-1464

Tender Specifications:

1. Long grain brown rice
2. Length of kernel: 6.61 mm~7.5mm, the ratio of length to width of whole kernel: ≥3.0.  Method of test for length and shape: randomly sample 30 kernels from sound kernels, measure the length and width of each kernels, then take the average of the measurement. The weight percentage of out of length standard kernels must be under 30 percent and the kernels which length less than 6.2 mm must be under 5 percent.
3. Amylose content:  ≥ 24 percent (for Tender GF4-103-118 only [1,500 MT])
4. Quantity: 1,500 mt each

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