The EU Council has approved a regulation that opens autonomous tariff quotas (ATQs) for specific fishery products for the years 2024, 2025, and 2026. This regulation establishes rules for the management of these quotas, with the primary objective of ensuring the EU’s fish processing industry’s continued access to raw materials from non-EU countries at reduced or duty-free rates.
The adopted regulation takes into consideration the potential impact on EU suppliers, aiming to maintain fair competition between imported fishery products and those produced within the EU. The move is designed to safeguard the competitiveness of the EU’s fish processing industry while ensuring a stable supply of quality processed fishery products to European consumers at reasonable prices.
Luis Planas Puchades, the Spanish Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, emphasized the importance of the regulation in providing legal certainty for all stakeholders involved. He stated, “With this regulation, we have safeguarded the competitiveness of our fish processing industry and the supply of European consumers with quality processed fishery products at reasonable prices.”
The adoption of autonomous tariff quotas has become essential as the EU has increasingly relied on imports to meet its demand for fishery products. This dependency arises either due to the absence of certain products within the EU or insufficient domestic production. The regulation covers specific fishery products for which duty will be either suspended or reduced for the period spanning 2024 to 2026, with specific duties and volumes allocated to each product.
In response to the strained relations between the EU and Russia, the Council has decided not to allow fishery products originating in Russia to benefit from duty-free treatment or most-favoured nation treatment. Belarusian fishery products have also been excluded from the regulation due to deteriorating relations and Belarus’ extensive support for the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
The regulation, set to enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, will be applicable from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2026. The management of these tariff quotas will be handled by the Commission and member states, operating on a first-come-first-served basis in accordance with the existing tariff-quota management system.