Brussels, 22/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 22 February, the Council of Ministers of the EU adopted, without debate, the new bilateral agreement concluded in 2005 between the European Community and Iceland, which will help reduce trade barriers in the agricultural sector. This agreement will enter into force on 1 March 2007 and includes: mutual exemption from customs duties on a number of products (live horses, reindeer meat, honey, plants, vegetables, fruit, certain grains, wine etc); tariff quotas granted by the EU for imports from Iceland (sheep meat, butter and sausages); tariff quotas granted by Iceland to the EU (bovine meat, pigs and poultry, quality cheese, potatoes and sausages), as well as tariff preferences from Iceland for many European products (bovine meat, pigs, sheep and goats and frogs' legs etc). The agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA) calls on the signatory parties to do their best to obtain gradual liberalisation in agricultural trade. The EU and Iceland reached an agreement on new agricultural concessions during negotiations held on 6 March - 18 November 2005. This arrangement consolidates existing concessions (dating from 1981) and includes new ones for a range of agricultural products. (lc)