EU/Norway Agreement on the modification of concessions on all the tariff-rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union: amending the Agreement

The European Parliament adopted by 525 votes to 5, with 34 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway amending the Agreement of the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.

Parliament gave its consent to the conclusion of the Agreement.

In 2018, in view of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, the EU launched negotiations at the level of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), under Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994, with relevant Members of the WTO, in order to adjust the existing EU’s tariff rate quotas (TRQ) agreed at the WTO.

The underlying principle of the negotiations was a ‘joint approach’ developed between the EU and the UK back in 2017 on how to ‘apportion’ the quantitative commitments contained in the EU28 WTO schedule for the 143 EU agricultural, fish and industrial WTO tariff rate quotas.

The negotiations between the EU and Norway resulted in the signature of an Agreement on 17 December 2020, which entered into force on 10 May 2021.

As a result of subsequent negotiations with other WTO Members, the EU agreed to change the shares of three TRQ for which Norway had negotiating rights: two TRQ in the pig meat sector and one on skimmed-milk powder.

The EU27 share of two erga omnes TRQ in the pigmeat sector had been revised to 4 786 tonnes and 5 720 tonnes respectively, taking into account a more recent reference period from 2015 to 2017. The EU27 share of an erga omnes TRQ on skimmed-milk powder had been revised to 62 917 tonnes to avoid a non-commercially viable volume on the UK side.

Following bilateral consultations, the Kingdom of Norway accepted the amendments and the resulting quantitative commitments made by the European Union, which no longer include the United Kingdom.

The objective of the Agreement is to:

- amend the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff-rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union regarding the volume of three tariff-rate quotas (numbers 015 and 017 for fresh, chilled or frozen pigmeat and number 030 for skimmed milk powder);

- provide for the apportionment of the tariff-rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 as a consequence of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the Union, pursuant to Article XXVIII of GATT 1994.