MEPs endorsed a 2017 trade agreement by 652 votes to 10 with 22 abstention.
Changes
- Under the new agreement the EU and Norway grant each other duty free access to 36 new products, including live horses, certain animal products and types of offal, plants, vegetables for feed purposes, provisionally preserved vegetables, fruit, berries and nuts, algae, certain sugars, fruit juices and fermented beverages.
- Norway increases zero rate tariff quota for bovine meet (1600 t), poultry (150 t), preserved meat products (200 t), cheese and curd (1200 t), flowers and plants, lettuce and chicory (100 t), corn (5000 t), sausages (200 t) and a 15 NOK/kg rate quota for pork (300 t). In return, the EU increases zero rate quota for poultry (700 t), preserved meat (300 t), whey products (4400 t), flowers (500 000 EUR), potato chips (150 t), animal feed (200 t) and albumins (500 t), and merges the existing quota for sheep and goat meat.
- To compensate the EU for earlier increased tariffs on cheese, beef and lamb meat and flower, Norway offered additional quota for cheese, beef, flowers and live plants.
Quote
“This agreement offers new opportunities for EU exporters and deepens trade relations between us, although the Parliament would have hoped for a more ambitious result. It must become a step towards liberalising agricultural trade further and to eventually abolish all existing impossible obstacles European farmers face”, rapporteur Beghin Tiziana (EFDD, IT) said.
Next steps
The agreement will enter into force after the Council and Norway have formally approved it.
Background
The EU and Norway are part of the European Economic Area Agreement (EEA Agreement), which provides for the free movement of goods, with the exception of agricultural and fisheries products. Parties carry out a review of trade conditions every two years, the most recent negotiations were conducted from February 2015 to April 2017. Norway is the EU's 7th most important partner for trade in goods. While Norway's overall trade with the EU shows a surplus, in trade of basic agricultural products the balance is in favour of the EU. The main EU export products include wines and vinegar, animal feed, soya and colza oil, live plants and cheese, while agriculture imports from Norway are mainly soybean, animal and vegetable oils and their residues and fur skins.