EU implements laws to protect its rice industry
The European Union (EU) has brought into force a set of laws that will protect its domestic rice industry even as it negotiates signing a free trade agreement (FTA) with India. Following the European Commission’s proposals to the EU Council to come up with a slew of measures to protect domestic industry players, the European Commission issued a notification implementing the laws.
According to S Chandrasekaran, a GI expert who has authored the book “Basmati Rice: The Natural History Geographical Indication”, the laws have been passed when the EU is preparing a Geographical Indicator (GI) tag for Indian basmati rice besides signing an FTA with New Delhi.