BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — Continued low maize prices and abundant worldwide supply of the commodity has prompted the European Commission to revise the import duty for maize, sorghum and rye.

“The automatic mechanism calculating import duties was triggered on April 27, setting the import duty on maize, sorghum and rye at €5.27 per tonne,” the European Commission said. “The new calculation has led to a revised duty at €10.40 per tonne.”

According to the European Commission, the import duty for the three commodities is based on the difference between a European reference price and the world benchmark for maize — the US price, calculated as cif maize price (cost, insurance and freight included) at the port of Rotterdam.

The new duty will apply until the automatic calculation leads to a new figure.

“The collapse of oil prices has led to a drop in bioethanol fuel demand in the US as well as lower freight costs,” the European Commission said. “In addition, a record maize harvest is expected for 2020-21 at global level. The combination of these factors has resulted in a US cif market price for maize at the port of Rotterdam at €146.63 per tonne.”

These import duties were triggered automatically by the Blair House Agreement between the United States and the EU involving setting tariffs on the basis of individual world reference prices for specific commodity types.

In July 2011, it was decided the import price for sorghum and rye would be equal to the cif import price for maize.