Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 73,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'catslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 73,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'catslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 74,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 74,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr6820cc4a93142-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr6820cc4a93142-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr6820cc4a93142-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 25402,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Financial Express
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Financial Express, 14 July, 2014, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-won-t-yield-much/1269609/0&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4673436,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 25402,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Agricultural Subsidies,subsidies,rice,paddy,Agriculture,farming,Free Trade,Trade,WTO&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Financial Express



Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather


Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Financial Express&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 25402,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Financial Express
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Financial Express, 14 July, 2014, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-won-t-yield-much/1269609/0&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4673436,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 25402
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Agricultural Subsidies,subsidies,rice,paddy,Agriculture,farming,Free Trade,Trade,WTO&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Financial Express



Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather


Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Financial Express&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Financial Express



Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather


Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">-The Financial Express</div><p align="justify"><br /><em>Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather</em></p><p align="justify">Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &quot;industry&quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.</p><p align="justify">US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India's and Thailand's exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.</p><p align="justify">Despite the US's average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?</p><p align="justify"><em>Market distortions</em></p><p align="justify">Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  </p><p align="justify">Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.</p><p align="justify"><em>India, Thailand and China</em></p><p align="justify">The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.</p><p align="justify">Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.</p><p align="justify">China's rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.</p><p align="justify"><em>Importers as distorters</em></p><p align="justify">The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.</p><p align="justify">The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.</p><p align="justify">Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. </p><p align="justify"><em>The author is a grains trade analyst</em></p>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$maxBufferLength = (int) 8192
$file = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php'
$line = (int) 853
$message = 'Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853'
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Code Context
            $response->getStatusCode(),

            ($reasonPhrase ? ' ' . $reasonPhrase : '')

        ));
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr6820cc4a93142-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr6820cc4a93142-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr6820cc4a93142-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 25402,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Financial Express
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Financial Express, 14 July, 2014, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-won-t-yield-much/1269609/0&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4673436,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 25402,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Agricultural Subsidies,subsidies,rice,paddy,Agriculture,farming,Free Trade,Trade,WTO&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Financial Express



Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather


Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Financial Express&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 25402,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Financial Express
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Financial Express, 14 July, 2014, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-won-t-yield-much/1269609/0&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4673436,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 25402
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Agricultural Subsidies,subsidies,rice,paddy,Agriculture,farming,Free Trade,Trade,WTO&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Financial Express



Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather


Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Financial Express&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Financial Express



Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather


Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">-The Financial Express</div><p align="justify"><br /><em>Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather</em></p><p align="justify">Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &quot;industry&quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.</p><p align="justify">US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India's and Thailand's exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.</p><p align="justify">Despite the US's average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?</p><p align="justify"><em>Market distortions</em></p><p align="justify">Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  </p><p align="justify">Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.</p><p align="justify"><em>India, Thailand and China</em></p><p align="justify">The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.</p><p align="justify">Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.</p><p align="justify">China's rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.</p><p align="justify"><em>Importers as distorters</em></p><p align="justify">The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.</p><p align="justify">The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.</p><p align="justify">Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. </p><p align="justify"><em>The author is a grains trade analyst</em></p>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$reasonPhrase = 'OK'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitStatusLine() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 54
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Code Context
                    $value

                ), $first);

                $first = false;
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr6820cc4a93142-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6820cc4a93142-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr6820cc4a93142-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr6820cc4a93142-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 25402,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Financial Express
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Financial Express, 14 July, 2014, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-won-t-yield-much/1269609/0&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4673436,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 25402,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Agricultural Subsidies,subsidies,rice,paddy,Agriculture,farming,Free Trade,Trade,WTO&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Financial Express



Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather


Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Financial Express&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 25402,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Financial Express
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Financial Express, 14 July, 2014, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-won-t-yield-much/1269609/0&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4673436,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 25402
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Agricultural Subsidies,subsidies,rice,paddy,Agriculture,farming,Free Trade,Trade,WTO&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Financial Express



Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather


Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Financial Express&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Global rice trade doesn&#039;t operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &amp;quot;industry&amp;quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India&#039;s and Thailand&#039;s exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Despite the US&#039;s average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Market distortions&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;India, Thailand and China&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;China&#039;s rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Importers as distorters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &amp;quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&amp;quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The author is a grains trade analyst&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Financial Express



Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather


Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">-The Financial Express</div><p align="justify"><br /><em>Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather</em></p><p align="justify">Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &quot;industry&quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.</p><p align="justify">US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India's and Thailand's exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.</p><p align="justify">Despite the US's average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?</p><p align="justify"><em>Market distortions</em></p><p align="justify">Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  </p><p align="justify">Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.</p><p align="justify"><em>India, Thailand and China</em></p><p align="justify">The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.</p><p align="justify">Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.</p><p align="justify">China's rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.</p><p align="justify"><em>Importers as distorters</em></p><p align="justify">The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.</p><p align="justify">The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.</p><p align="justify">Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. </p><p align="justify"><em>The author is a grains trade analyst</em></p>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$cookies = []
$values = [
	(int) 0 => 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
]
$name = 'Content-Type'
$first = true
$value = 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitHeaders() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 55
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

<head>

    <link rel="canonical" href="<?php echo Configure::read('SITE_URL'); ?><?php echo $urlPrefix;?><?php echo $article_current->category->slug; ?>/<?php echo $article_current->seo_url; ?>.html"/>

    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>

$viewFile = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp'
$dataForView = [
	'article_current' => object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		'id' => (int) 25402,
		'title' => 'The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang',
		'subheading' => '',
		'description' => '<div align="justify">
-The Financial Express
</div>
<p align="justify">
<br />
<em>Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather</em>
</p>
<p align="justify">
Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &quot;industry&quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.
</p>
<p align="justify">
US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India's and Thailand's exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.
</p>
<p align="justify">
Despite the US's average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?
</p>
<p align="justify">
<em>Market distortions</em>
</p>
<p align="justify">
Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  
</p>
<p align="justify">
Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.
</p>
<p align="justify">
<em>India, Thailand and China</em>
</p>
<p align="justify">
The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.
</p>
<p align="justify">
Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.
</p>
<p align="justify">
China's rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.
</p>
<p align="justify">
<em>Importers as distorters</em>
</p>
<p align="justify">
The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.
</p>
<p align="justify">
The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.
</p>
<p align="justify">
Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. 
</p>
<p align="justify">
<em>The author is a grains trade analyst</em>
</p>',
		'credit_writer' => 'The Financial Express, 14 July, 2014, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-won-t-yield-much/1269609/0',
		'article_img' => '',
		'article_img_thumb' => '',
		'status' => (int) 1,
		'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
		'lang' => 'EN',
		'category_id' => (int) 16,
		'tag_keyword' => '',
		'seo_url' => 'the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436',
		'meta_title' => null,
		'meta_keywords' => null,
		'meta_description' => null,
		'noindex' => (int) 0,
		'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		'most_visit_section_id' => null,
		'article_big_img' => null,
		'liveid' => (int) 4673436,
		'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'edate' => '',
		'tags' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		'[new]' => false,
		'[accessible]' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'[dirty]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[original]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[virtual]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[hasErrors]' => false,
		'[errors]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[invalid]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[repository]' => 'Articles'
	
	},
	'articleid' => (int) 25402,
	'metaTitle' => 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang',
	'metaKeywords' => 'Agricultural Subsidies,subsidies,rice,paddy,Agriculture,farming,Free Trade,Trade,WTO',
	'metaDesc' => '
-The Financial Express



Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather


Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and...',
	'disp' => '<div align="justify">-The Financial Express</div><p align="justify"><br /><em>Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather</em></p><p align="justify">Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &quot;industry&quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.</p><p align="justify">US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India's and Thailand's exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.</p><p align="justify">Despite the US's average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?</p><p align="justify"><em>Market distortions</em></p><p align="justify">Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  </p><p align="justify">Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.</p><p align="justify"><em>India, Thailand and China</em></p><p align="justify">The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.</p><p align="justify">Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.</p><p align="justify">China's rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.</p><p align="justify"><em>Importers as distorters</em></p><p align="justify">The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.</p><p align="justify">The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.</p><p align="justify">Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. </p><p align="justify"><em>The author is a grains trade analyst</em></p>',
	'lang' => 'English',
	'SITE_URL' => 'https://im4change.in/',
	'site_title' => 'im4change',
	'adminprix' => 'admin'
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	'id' => (int) 25402,
	'title' => 'The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang',
	'subheading' => '',
	'description' => '<div align="justify">
-The Financial Express
</div>
<p align="justify">
<br />
<em>Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather</em>
</p>
<p align="justify">
Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &quot;industry&quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.
</p>
<p align="justify">
US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India's and Thailand's exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.
</p>
<p align="justify">
Despite the US's average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?
</p>
<p align="justify">
<em>Market distortions</em>
</p>
<p align="justify">
Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  
</p>
<p align="justify">
Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.
</p>
<p align="justify">
<em>India, Thailand and China</em>
</p>
<p align="justify">
The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.
</p>
<p align="justify">
Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.
</p>
<p align="justify">
China's rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.
</p>
<p align="justify">
<em>Importers as distorters</em>
</p>
<p align="justify">
The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.
</p>
<p align="justify">
The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.
</p>
<p align="justify">
Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. 
</p>
<p align="justify">
<em>The author is a grains trade analyst</em>
</p>',
	'credit_writer' => 'The Financial Express, 14 July, 2014, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-won-t-yield-much/1269609/0',
	'article_img' => '',
	'article_img_thumb' => '',
	'status' => (int) 1,
	'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
	'lang' => 'EN',
	'category_id' => (int) 16,
	'tag_keyword' => '',
	'seo_url' => 'the-us-probe-of-rice-trade-wont-yield-much-tejinder-narang-4673436',
	'meta_title' => null,
	'meta_keywords' => null,
	'meta_description' => null,
	'noindex' => (int) 0,
	'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	'most_visit_section_id' => null,
	'article_big_img' => null,
	'liveid' => (int) 4673436,
	'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'edate' => '',
	'tags' => [
		(int) 0 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	'[new]' => false,
	'[accessible]' => [
		'*' => true,
		'id' => false
	],
	'[dirty]' => [],
	'[original]' => [],
	'[virtual]' => [],
	'[hasErrors]' => false,
	'[errors]' => [],
	'[invalid]' => [],
	'[repository]' => 'Articles'

}
$articleid = (int) 25402
$metaTitle = 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang'
$metaKeywords = 'Agricultural Subsidies,subsidies,rice,paddy,Agriculture,farming,Free Trade,Trade,WTO'
$metaDesc = '
-The Financial Express



Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather


Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and...'
$disp = '<div align="justify">-The Financial Express</div><p align="justify"><br /><em>Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather</em></p><p align="justify">Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice &quot;industry&quot; as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade.</p><p align="justify">US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India's and Thailand's exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt.</p><p align="justify">Despite the US's average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US?</p><p align="justify"><em>Market distortions</em></p><p align="justify">Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players.  </p><p align="justify">Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available.</p><p align="justify"><em>India, Thailand and China</em></p><p align="justify">The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports.</p><p align="justify">Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is.  Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices.  Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets.</p><p align="justify">China's rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated.</p><p align="justify"><em>Importers as distorters</em></p><p align="justify">The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on &quot;duty-paid, destination-delivered basis&quot;, which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency.</p><p align="justify">The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability.</p><p align="justify">Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. </p><p align="justify"><em>The author is a grains trade analyst</em></p>'
$lang = 'English'
$SITE_URL = 'https://im4change.in/'
$site_title = 'im4change'
$adminprix = 'admin'

include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51

The US probe of rice trade won’t yield much -Tejinder Narang

-The Financial Express Global rice trade doesn't operate on market principles. Rather, it is guided by politics, vested interests and weather Rice is a political commodity. Governments all over the world maintain regimentation on rice production and trade through price controls and subsidisation, tariffs, phytosanitary and environmental safety standards-sometimes in a whimsical manner. On July 6, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) notified investigations (to be completed by April 2015) on global competitiveness of the US rice "industry" as compared with other exporting countries like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil-this assessment would also include practices adopted by major importing nations. The intention perhaps is to probe the morality of international rice trade. US-milled rice, at $570-670/mt fob, is grossly out-priced, by at least $200-$250/mt, by rice of Asian origin. The US output is 7 mt (milled) with export of about 3 mt, mostly to Latin American nations. In 2014-15, India's and Thailand's exports may touch 10 mt each, with Vietnam trailing at 7 mt. Despite the US's average paddy yield of 8-9 tonnes/ha-the world average is 4 tonne/ha-farm price of paddy is about $350/mt (that makes milled rice $580/mt at conversion factor of 0.66). In India, paddy is priced at $235/mt, in Vietnam, at $240-$260/mt and in Thailand, at $480/mt till recently (now, at around $260/mt). Is this difference in paddy prices that worry the US? Market distortions Paddy production in developing countries is incentivised through subvention of inputs like seed/fertiliser, etc, and higher procurement prices while rice is discounted to poor consumers for vote-bank politics. Exports of surpluses thus get directly or indirectly subsidised. At the same time, importing nations make rice expensive by imposing high tariffs to protect domestic production/ inefficiencies, which are again followed by subvention to the targeted beneficiaries, creating arbitrage opportunities for the market players. Paddy can be processed to rice in many ways (raw, steamed, parboiled). By-products like husk, bran, bran oil and broken rice can also be traded. Export pricing of rice thus gets discounted with realisation from such collaterals. Long/medium/short-grain (non-basmati rice) and aromatic (basmati) varieties can be mingled to average out pricing. Like in any other business, for rice trade also, in the grey area of ethics of pricing a commodity, adherence to fair market practices is diluted due to multiplicity of options available. India, Thailand and China The Indian government determines a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy of non-basmati variety for the open-ended procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI). The subsidised price for FCI is about 25% of the economic cost, which gets distributed to targeted beneficiaries accounting for leakage of around 40%-45%. Pilferages reach the market and are supportive of Indian rice exports. Thailand discovered a novel paddy-pledging scheme in 2011 wherein farmers were remunerated 50% above market price by a government bank; till February 2014, that is. Local traders enriched themselves by smuggling cheaper paddy from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam and selling it to Thai government at high prices. Currently, about 10 mt of low-quality, high-priced stocks are stuck and waiting to be auctioned by new military regime that has taken over in the country. The possibility of a distress sale cannot be ruled out and that can trigger collapse of rice prices and destabilise world markets. China's rice polices on pricing/imports/exports are state-controlled and cannot be rationally discussed or analysed or investigated. Importers as distorters The antics of importers are of no lesser consequence. Nigerian authorities apply high import tariffs to support their own inefficient rice production. Imports of high-quality 5% parboiled rice of about 1.5 mt (out of a total of 2 mt) are shipped to neighbouring Benin and Cameroon to escape high duties, from where they are smuggled by land in to the Nigerian territory. Politicians and custom officials are the major beneficiaries. The government of the Philippines structures tenders on "duty-paid, destination-delivered basis", which includes inflated local cost of inland transport, compelling the hiring of services of handling agent(s) by the seller. Such agent(s) also become conduits for distribution of commissions. Allegations of corrupt deals between Vietnamese trading companies and the Philippines government, in the recent 800,000 tonnes tender, are already in public domain. The Iraqi government puts in Uruguay-leaning specifications in its tenders, preferring it over Thailand or India. Thus, imports are made much above the market prices. Such intricate tendering procedures lack transparency. The US patented basmati as Kasmati/Texmati. This has irritated the Indians because the geographical indication is defied. The US and EU complain about some chemical content in Indian basmati rice, while Pakistan gets the approval though the farmers there operate under similar ecological conditions. China imports about 3 mt of non-basmati rice per annum from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan while India stands ignored. If Pakistan is deemed acceptable, then denial to India is questionable. Iran imports 1121-basmati rice from India under rupee payment. Some buyers and sellers conclude agreements with a blend of basmati and non- basmati for commercial viability. Thus, the global rice trade is full of distortions and discriminations, including the lack of WTO compliance by many nations. Can international competitiveness and cheaper domestic values be regulated when politics, weather and food security dictate rice policies/prices. Can USITC come up with a universal remedy? Let us wait and watch. The author is a grains trade analyst