Tariff suspensions on certain agricultural products
Published by AGRINFO on ; Revised
EU suspends duties on certain agricultural products to meet domestic needs
Council Regulation (EU) 2023/2890 of 19 December 2023 amending Regulation (EU) 2021/2278 suspending the Common Customs Tariff duties referred to in Article 56(2), point (c), of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 on certain agricultural and industrial products
Update
The EU is suspending import tariffs (duties) on specific agricultural products – certain vegetables and fruit (raw and processed), oils, and processed cereal products – to ensure adequate supply.
What is changing?
The EU is continuing the suspension of Common Custom Tariff (CCT) duties in 2024 on a range of agri-food products in the following customs categories (Combined Nomenclature, CN chapter codes are equivalent to HS chapter codes):
- vegetables (CN 07): certain chanterelles, bamboo shoots, mushrooms
- fruit (CN 08): certain dates, boysenberries, pineapple, rosehips
- oils (CN 15): certain palm, coconut and palm kernel oils with specific industrial uses, microbial oil, vegetable oil, hydrogenated castor oil, jojoba oil, vegetable oil
- prepared cereals (CN 19): certain powders, transparent noodles
- prepared vegetables (CN 20): certain forms of bamboo shoots; mango, papaya and guava purée concentrates; sweetened dried cranberries; mango purée; seedless boysenberry purée; vine leaves; Chinese water chestnuts; acai berries; juices of pineapple, cranberry, boysenberry, acerola, acai berry, and passionfruit; coconut water
- miscellaneous edible preparations (CN 21): certain forms of soy/casein protein.
Duties will also be suspended on one additional category of foods: edible mixtures of animal and vegetable oil predominantly from the species Pacific pollock (CN 15).
Normal duties will be reinstated for some products for which they were suspended in 2023: certain peas in pods of the species Pisum sativum (CN 7), and fruit of the genus Vaccinium (CN 08).
Full details on the relevant products (specific customs codes and product descriptions) are set out in the Annex to the Regulation.
Why?
The EU can “autonomously” (without negotiating with trading partners) remove or reduce CCT duties on imports of raw materials for intermediate products that are not produced in sufficient quantities within the EU to ensure adequate supply. In this way, the EU aims to prevent disturbances to its markets.
This new Regulation removes the import duties for some additional products now identified as being in short supply in the EU, and re-applies duties for some products that are now available in sufficient quantity.
Timeline
The revised list of tariff suspensions will apply from 1 January 2024.
Sources
Council Regulation (EU) 2023/2890
Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2278 suspending the Common Customs Tariff duties on certain agricultural and industrial products