The European Union has announced that it has come to an agreement with Norway that will facilitate bilateral trade in agricultural products, a move the bloc said would allow EU exporters to reinforce their position on their eighth largest market for agricultural products.
'I welcome this agreement, which will facilitate trade between the EU and Norway,' said commissioner for agriculture Phil Hogan. 'It will provide more market opportunities for our EU producers and contribute to the continuation of our EU agri-food export success. The EU is the number one agri-food exporter in the world with €130bn of exports in 2016.'
The agreement was reached following two years of negotiations, and will grant mutual duty-free access for 36 tariff lines, including for example, various types of live plants, corn for feed, various berries and fermented beverages such as perry and cider.
With regards to products such as meat, dairy, grains, vegetables and ornamental plants, the EU and Norway will grant each other tariff quotas.
The draft agreements will now be forwarded to the relevant authorities in the EU and Norway, for scrutiny and formal adoption before their final entry into force.
The exports of EU agricultural products to Norway have been steadily growing over the last decade and almost doubled during this period to €2.5bn. Norway is a net importer of agricultural products and the agricultural trade balance is in favour of the EU.
