THE Federation of Rio Grande do Sul Associations (Federarroz) has informed that it will present to the federal government a request the adoption of restrictive trade measures against countries that have more flexible standards of protection of the environment through imposition of environmental antidumping.
In a statement, the entity said that the initiative is due to the lack of competitive conditions of the Brazilian rice grower with the cereal coming from importing countries that do not have minimum rules of environmental preservation which reflects in lower cost of production.
According to Federarroz’s Legal Director, Anderson Belloli, Brazil’s rice farmers are conducting a process of preservation of soil, water resources and the integrity of the climate system. It points out, however, that the rice grower must compete with rice from countries with environmental rules that are incompatible with the legislation in force in Brazil, which makes competition unfair. “In the area of international trade, commercial anti-dumping against a particular country is applicable with the objective of protecting the national economic sector from possible unfair trade practices for non-compliance with minimum standards of environmental preservation,” he observes.
Belloli says that the relationship between the environment and international trade has been the subject of discussions between the concepts of the preservation of the planet and the adoption of restrictive trade measures in the face of non-compliance with minimum standards of environmental protection by some countries.