Brussels, 26/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 26 October 2009, the EU Council of Ministers adopted without debate a regulation on the management and opening up of EU autonomous tariff quotas for certain fisheries products in 2010-2012. The regulation updates the list of quotas for products on which customs duty is totally or fully suspended. The EU currently relies on importing certain fisheries products to meet demand. The European Union's self-sufficiency in fisheries products has fallen from 57% to 36 % over the past ten years and this means that a greater number of products will be covered by these tariff quotas in 2010-2012.
The regulation foresees an annual tariff quotas of 15,000 tonnes for tuna loins and skipjack tuna for processing, on which customs duty of 6% will be levied. Spain voted against the regulation because it argues that a quota of 15,000 tonnes of tuna loins is much greater than needed by the EU tuna processing industry. Spain argues that the EU needs would be met if the autonomous quotas was kept at its current level (10,000 tonnes in 2009) for the 2010-2012 period.
New quotas include 10,000 tonnes for flat frozen fish for the processing industry(with zero import duty), and 10,000 tonnes of Alaskan pollock at zero duty. The size of some quotas has been increased, like for blue grenadiers (20,000 tonnes a year, up from 10,000 a year at present) but most quotas remain unchanged, like 45,000 tonnes of squid bodies (at zero duty), 55,000 tonnes of surimi for food processing, 80,000 tonnes of cod (at zero duty), and 20,000 tonnes of herring. (L.C. trans fl)