Brussels, 25/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - A measure has just been agreed to ease the tensions on the European cereals market (prices remain high for wheat, barley and maize and 2011-2012 stocks are at their lowest) and help the livestock sector. There having been no opinion reached in the management Committee on Thursday 24 November, the Commission will very shortly approve the extension until 30 June 2012 of customs duties applied to existing quotas of soft wheat of low and medium quality and feed barley. Preferential duties for these cereals, which were €12 and €16 per tonne respectively, will be reduced to zero for the quantities within the Tariff Rate Quotas.
This measure is for a limited quantity of 1.2 million tonnes out of a total use of cereals in the EU of 272 million tonnes.
For some cereals, the EU has established tariffs, that is, an import quota at a lower than usual rate. For medium and low quality soft wheat, there is an annual erga omnes (open to all) tariff quota of 2,989,240 tonnes at a duty of €12 per tonne. Within this total quantity, there is a specific quota per county of 572,000 tonnes for imports from the United States and 38,853 tonnes from Canada.
For feed barley, there is an annual tariff quota of 306,215 tonnes with a duty of €16 per tonne. (LC/transl.rt)