The European Commission(EU) has said it will reinstate duties on rice from Myanmar and Cambodia to protect their own farmers. This comes after a surge in cheaper imports from the Southeast Asian countries in recent years. “An investigation has confirmed a significant increase of imports of Indica rice from Cambodia and Myanmar into the European Union that has caused economic damage to European producers,” the Commission said in a statement, according to an AFP story. “The European Commission has therefore decided today to re-introduce import duties that will be steadily reduced over a period of three years”. Beginning last week, it said it is applying a duty of 175 euros (US$ 200) per tonne of Indica in the first year. The duty will fall to 150 euros per tonne in the second year and 125 euros per tonne in the third. In an investigation conducted last year, the Commission said it found that Indica rice imports from Myanmar and Cambodia increased by 89 percent in the last five seasons. It was added that “prices were substantially lower than those over the EU market”. As a result, European producers saw their market share in the EU market fall from 61 percent to 29 percent, the report said.