EU looking to raise tariffs on many seafood imports

EU looking to raise tariffs on many seafood imports

It appears that the European commission is considering raising tariffs on many types of seafood imports beginning in 2013
Update: (7/9/2012)

At issue is the elimination of many tariff exemptions, and instead the application of tariffs, at a lower level than standard tariffs, to many import quotas that are now tariff free or nearly so.

As we have reported, this change would impact Alaska pollock by removing an exemption, and raising the tariff to 3.0 to 3.5% on a 260,000 ton quota.

For cold water shrimp, it would mean expanding the quota from 20,000 tons to 33,300 tons, but also expanding the products covered beyond cooked and peeled Pandalus borealis; to the West Coast Pandalus jordani, and to shell on cooked Pandalus imported into the EU for the rapidly growing hand peeled market.

The draft proposal shows the commission is also considering reducing the amount of surimi, anchovies, herring, squid and possibly cod and shrimp that can be imported into the EU at no or very low duty.

Instead of being able to import 55,000 metric tons of frozen surimi at no duty, processors could have to pay duty after importing 40,000 metric tons. Similarly, the amount of duty free brined or salted anchovies has been cut from 5,000 to 1,500 metric tons.

Pierre Commere, who heads the French processor association Adepale, told IntraFish Adepale had asked for an ATQ of 65,000 metric tons for surimi, and of 5,000 metric tons for anchovies.

Now it appears the tariff proposal would affect tuna loins as well -- meaning it is a change that is being applied across the board, not just to individual species.

The tuna proposal, as detailed by atuna.com, shows that within the Union there is a sentiment to increase the duties of products which are destined for processing, including frozen pre-cooked tuna loins for canning, to the level of 20%. ??The draft show that the EU wants to apply an ATQ or Autonomous Tariff Quota, and that all suspensions would be removed as part of the EU's reforming of Common Fisheries Policy.

The leaked documents says that this new rule would apply to all ocean species, and no more exceptions would be made. But this would not impact countries which have negotiated special trade arrangements with the EU, only ‘3rd party‘ countries. This proposal could be a major threat to European based canned tuna processor in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Greece which nowadays mainly depend on the use of imported pre-cooked frozen tuna loins from S- America, Africa and Asia for their production. Earlier Spain and Italy have called for the total reduction of import duties on pre-cooked loins for the first 30,000 M/T imported, while the French called for a quota of only 10,000 M/T with a 4 pct duty.

The regular duty tariff on loins is 15% when coming from the Thailand, China and Vietnam. As it looks the proposal would still leave the year around duty free import of loins in place from origin countries such as Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Papua New Guinea, Mauritius and other countries which have special tariff arrangements with the EU. Implementation of the draft proposal would cut the supply of pre-cooked loins from Asia to the EU, but likely increase imports from S- America and Papua New Guinea.

Recently ANFACO has been fiercely protesting against the imports of tuna from Papua New Guinea, and the duty free arrangement that the country has with the EU through the EPA - Economic Partnership Agreement.

(from Seafood.com)