EU extends fishery tariff quotas to 31 December 2027

Importers of the fishery products listed in the Annex to Regulation (EU) 2023/2720Europa keep their reduced- or zero-duty tariff quotas for one more year.Europa Council Regulation (EU) 2026/2446Europa of 26 October 2026Europa extends the autonomous Union tariff quotasEuropa, which would otherwise have expired on 31 December 2026Europa, so that the amended Regulation applies from 1 January 2024Europa to 31 December 2027EuropaEuropa. The Council acted to avoid a gap in the provision of duty-free supplies of fishery products to the Union while the successor quota regulation, which will reflect the sustainability commitments of the Union in the quota regime, is still being finalised.

Under Regulation (EU) 2023/2720, import duties on the Annex-listed products are suspended or reduced within the quota volumes, rates and periods the Annex setsEuropa. Every Union importer has equal and uninterrupted access until a quota is used up, and quotas are managed in chronological order of the dates on which the customs declarations for release for free circulation are accepted, under Articles 49 to 54 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447. Member States draw the quantities corresponding to their actual imports, the Commission monitors how fast quotas are used up, and quota use sits under end-use customs supervision in accordance with Article 254 of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013.

The quotas reach only products intended for human consumption that undergo genuine processing in the Union.Europa They are not available where processing is carried out at retail or catering level, nor for products subject solely to minimal operations such as cleaning, gutting, cutting, repacking of frozen individually quick-frozen fillets, labelling, packing, chilling, freezing, glazing or thawing.Europa They are available for qualifying operations including dicing, filleting, production of flaps, cutting of frozen blocks and slicing of the specified goods, alongside the further operations Article 4(4) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2720 lists.Europa Customs and trade-compliance teams clearing 2027 imports should therefore confirm that the intended processing goes beyond the excluded minimal operations before claiming the quota rate.

Origin matters: the quotas are not available for products originating in Russia or BelarusEuropa, with origin established under the non-preferential rules of Article 60 of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013. The 2026 amending Regulation changes nothing else: quota volumes, rates and conditions are untouchedEuropa, and each Annex quota period now simply reads 1.1.2024–31.12.2027Europa. The amending Regulation enters into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official JournalEuropa, published 28 October 2026Europa, and it is binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Legal basis: Council Regulation (EU) 2026/2446, adopted under Article 31 TFEU, amending Article 6 and the Annex of Council Regulation (EU) 2023/2720.