EU, Iceland Enhance Meat Trade
25.09.2015
The European Commission and Iceland have signed two agreements on the further liberalisation of trade in agricultural products and foodstuffs and one on the protection of Geographical Indications (GIs).
These agreements represent a substantial step towards market integration between the EU and Iceland as trade will be duty-free for more than 95 per cent of processed agricultural products and many basic agricultural products.
Currently 66.4 per cent of EU agricultural products enter Iceland duty-free. With the new agreement, Iceland will increase the duty-free access to 91.3 per cent of EU basic agricultural products in terms of trade value.
In addition, the EU will benefit from increased quotas in particular for cheese, beef, pigmeat and poultry. Simultaneously, Iceland will gain additional access for its skyr exports over a transition period of 4 years, from a current quota of 380 tonnes to 4000 tonnes.
It expresses the willingness of the two sides to promote and develop trade in quality products, benefiting farmers and industries in both Iceland and the EU.
