After several years of negotiations, the European Commission has agreed and implemented tariff quotas covering imports of certain fish and shellfish and their products from Iceland and Norway, a move that is expected to reduce import costs and expand EU trade with the Nordic nations. The two sets of tariff quotas on the countries’ trade are effective 1 January through 4 April of each year from 2025 through 2028. They apply to eight subheadings for Iceland and 12 for Norway in the EU tariff schedule, covering dozens of individual products, including certain fresh, frozen, cured, and otherwise prepared species of fish and shellfish, both wild-caught and farm-raised.
A tariff quota is a tool of trade policy that applies tariff-free treatment during a specified period to imports whose volume is below a set amount (the quota). Additional imports above the quota are then charged the normal tariff. For example, for a product whose normal tariff is 10%, a tariff quota of 1,000 tonnes allows up to 1,000 tonnes to enter tariff-free, and when the quota is filled, additional imports are subject to the 10% tariff. For supply or demand reasons, in many cases the quota in a particular year is not filled, and the product effectively becomes tariff-free; the tariff remains on the books and provides market stabilisation and economic security in case there is an unexpected surge in imports, filling and exceeding the quota.
The products affected by the two recent agreements include fresh whole sole, turbot and other flatfish, frozen whole herring and blue whiting, fresh redfish fillets, cured herring in brine, frozen Norway lobsters, prepared or preserved frozen shrimps and prawn, smoked salmon, smoked trout, and frozen Pandalidae shrimps, among many others. Because the negotiations took so long, the quota years are retroactive back to 2021. The agreed quotas for the period from 2021 to the actual opening of quotas on 1 January 2025 will be distributed over the remaining period through 30 April 2028. Quotas in years now ended that were not filled, and unfilled quotas in current and future years through 2028, can be carried over for up to two years, making 2030 the effective ending year of the agreements. The agreements can also be extended at their expiry.
The two agreements by the EU along with an annex describing each product, its quota and its over-quota tariff rate, are available at:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202403165
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ%3AL_202403164&qid=1734591840629