Trade barriers are a significant feature of international rice trade. The major types of distortion in world rice markets are import tariffs and tariff rate quotas in key im- porting countries and price supports in key exporting countries. In 2000, the global trade-weighted average tariff on all rice was 43.3%. Markets for medium-grain rice are far more distorted than markets for long-grain rice due to tariff rate quotas (TRQs) and quotas in the major medium-grain rice-importing countries of Japan, Republic of Korea, and Taiwan. Global trade-weighted average rice tariffs in 2000 for markets for medium- and short-grain rice were 217% compared with 21% for markets for long-grain rice (Wailes 2004a).