As part of the agreement, the EU will give Vietnam a quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice with a zero-per-cent tax rate per year, including 30,000 tonnes of milled rice, 20,000 tonnes of unmilled rice and 30,000 tonnes of fragrant rice.
The EU will also fully liberalise broken rice, helping Vietnam export an estimated 100,000 tonnes to the EU annually.
For products made from rice, the EU will bring the tax rate down to 0 percent after three to five years.
Rice plantations in Mekong Delta provinces account for about 25 percent of the total cultivated area, equivalent to about 1 million hectares. Fragrant rice output is estimated at 5.5 million tonnes.
The amount of fragrant rice exported to the EU was entitled to a preferential tariff quota of 30,000 tonnes, equivalent to 1.2 percent of the rice produced in the region./.
