The European Commission announced the opening and clarification of the management of tariff quotas for imports of certain Vietnamese agri-food products and rice on 15 and 10 July respectively.
The FTA does provide for certain products to be subject to tariff quotas, i.e. the elimination of their customs duties is only granted within the limits of duty-free quotas.
The regulations will enter into force on 1 August, the date of entry into force of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA) (see EUROPE 12517/38).
As always, these are mainly agri-food products, such as garlic, corn, tuna, surimi, sugars, mushrooms and ethanols. The tariff quotas to which these imports will be subject will apply on an annual basis, but, as the Agreement applies from 1 August 2020, the quantities will be fixed on a pro rata basis for 2020.
As for rice, which is dealt with in a separate regulation, the Union is required to open tariff quotas for the import of 80,000 tonnes of this sensitive product. In order to facilitate their absorption and to avoid any disruption on their EU market, the quota period should be subdivided into sub-periods, for each separate quota, i.e. 20,000 tonnes of husked rice, 30,000 tonnes of milled rice and 30,000 tonnes of flavoured rice.
Consult the regulations for rice: https://bit.ly/2Zu8YLS and the regulations for other agri-food products: https://bit.ly/3j8B3jx (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)