Guyanese rice producers are threatening legal action against two Caribbean island neighbours that buy subsidised rice from other regions without levying import taxes, an agriculture official said Friday.

Montserrat, a British Caribbean territory, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines regularly buy rice from several Asian nations and the United States without levying mandatory import taxes, according to Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud.

Persaud said Guyana, which is the region's largest rice producer, instructed the South American nation's rice export board to take their trade dispute to the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice, the highest judicial body for much of the region.

Agriculture officials in Montserrat and St. Vincent did not immediately return calls for comment.

Rice is Guyana's third largest export earner after sugar and gold.

- AP