Tariff Rate quota in the EU

The European Union has opened tariff rate quotas (TRQs) after the Uruguay Ronnd (UR), following the agreement that minimum access should be provided and current access not be restricted. The EU TRQs are described and their origin is explained. Descriptive statistics are provided in order to assess the implementation of the market access provisions of the 1994 UR Agreement. Transparency of the EU TRQ system and fill rates of TRQs are examined. Overall, the EU’S record in the area of TRQs is relatively satisfactory, compared with those of other countries. Concerns remain, however, as to the exact articulation of the (regional) Europe Agreement and some quotas under minimum access, The 1994 Uruguay Round Agreement on Agricul-ture (URAA) resulted in an obligation to improve market access in agriculture for World Trade Or-ganization (WTO) member countries, beyond the hoped-for effects of the scheduled reduction in tar-iffs. All countries were expected to allow access to their domestic markets for imports equivalent to at least 3 % of domestic consumption in the 1986-1988 base period. This proportion was to rise to 5 % at the end of the implementation period (i.e. in year 2001 in the European Union). These provi-sions are referred to as “minimum access. ” In ad-dition, the URAA agreed that preexisting market access had to be preserved. That is, access condi-tions for historically established import quantities would be maintained (a provision referred to as “current access”). In the beginning of the implementation period (i.e. 1995), EU bound tariffs were too high for the EU to meet minimum access commitments without specific instruments. The scheduled 36 % decrease in tariffs is unlikely to be sufficient for the EU to meet the commitments at the end of the implemen-tation period. Final tariffs and special safeguard provisions will still provide significant protection to EU farmers in some sectors. Hence, for a num-ber of products the EU opened up tariff rate quotas (TRQs) in order to meet the obligations of current access. When traditional imports did not represen