Hanoi (VNA) – Cambodia’s rice exports to China have surged strongly afterthe European Union (EU) imposed duties on rice imports from the Southeast Asiannation, the World Bank (WB) said on May 6.

The EU in January imposed tariffs for threeyears on rice imported from Cambodia and Myanmar to curb an increase in importsfrom those two countries and to protect EU producers such as Italy.

Cambodia has filed a challenge with theEuropean Court of Justice (ECJ) against the duties.

According to the WB’s country economicupdate, after the tariffs were imposed, Cambodia’s milled rice exports to theEU in February were only 10,080 tonnes, a 57.8 percent decline from theprevious month.

Cambodia exported 270,000 tonnes or 43percent of its total milled rice exports to the EU in 2018, the WB said.

The decline in Cambodia’s rice exports to theEU was more than offset by the increase in the country’s rice exports to theChinese market, the WB said in its report.

Cambodia’s rice exports to China grew by 45.6percent, and it managed to increase its overall exports of rice by 2 percentduring the first two months of the year.

Cambodia at present gets a trade preferencefrom the EU known as Everything But Arms (EBA), making all Cambodian exportsduty free except arms.

The EU accounts for more than one-third ofCambodia’s export value, including garments, footwear and bicycles.

In February, the EU started an 18-monthprocess that could lead to a suspension of Cambodia’s EBA status.

The WB said if the EBA is suspended, Cambodiawould see a maximum decline in exports to the EU of 654 million USD.-VNA