According to a report from the European Commission's DG Trade, the additional annual import quota to the EU of 35,000 tonnes of olive oil that was granted to Tunisia in May 2016 had not been completely used up by the end of 2016.
On 30 October, only 29% of this volume had been allocated (in other words, 10,168 tonnes) and 7.3% had been effectively imported.
This additional quota, valid for 2016 and 2017, comes on top of the already existing quota of 56,700 tonnes allocated from the first week of January 2016, but of which only 62% had been imported at the end of October.
The Commission concludes that the developments of the market and the level of use of these quotas show that the implementation of the additional quota has a marginal impact on the EU's olive oil market.
For 2016-2017, Tunisia expects an even greater fall in its production than that of 60%, to 140,000 tonnes in 2015-2016 compared with the exceptional marketing year of 2014-2015, and of 25% compared with the average over five years.
End of free trade area consultation on 22 February. Interested stakeholders have until 22 February to respond to the public consultation launched by the Commission at the end of November on aspects of the talks started with Tunisia in October 2015 for an agreement on a free trade area as part of the association agreement that has been in force since 1998.
These talks, started in April 2016 (see EUROPE 11535) cover agricultural trade, industrial goods and services, public procurement, trade defence measures, trade facilitation and intellectual property protection (see EUROPE 11545). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)