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Article: Vietnamese frozen loins of skipjack tuna to Europe at zero duty
06 August 2020
As published in the Official Journal of the European Union,
duties on fillets known as 'loins' (HS 16 04 14 16) will be removed
in eight equal annual stages beginning on the date of entry into
force of the agreement and thereafter be free of any customs duty.
Current Union's Common Customs Tariff basic tax rate is of 24%.
Canned tuna in vegetable oil (HS 16041411) - currently at 24% -
and canned bonito tuna (HS 16041490) are duty-free within an
aggregated annual quantity of 11,500 tonnes.
Customs duties of skipjack tuna frozen fillets for other uses
than processing (HS 03048700) - currently at 18% - will be removed
in four equal annual stages beginning on the date of entry into
force of this agreement and removed thereafter.
Industry reactions
EU28 imports of prepared tuna from Vietnam last year totalled
12,000 tonnes, representing 2.2% of the total imports from outside
the EU-28.
As soon as the EU-Vietnam FTA enters into force, increasing tuna
volumes trade between both will also imply increasing competition
with the EU itself (canning and fishing industry), ACP countries as
well as "the likes of the Philippines," an industry source
noted.
Meantime, Thailand "is not in this race anymore because of EU
protectionism, evidenced in higher duties on Thai canned tuna and
canned pineapple, anti-dumping on canned sweetcorn or barriers
imposed on Thai rice. With EU-Vietnam's FTA, it just gives Thailand
another tough meat to chew on," the source noted.
A second one added: "Vietnam needs to develop more sanitary
regulations, otherwise it will create quality problems."
However, as import duties for tuna raw material (1604) from
Vietnam progressively decrease from current 24% to zero over eight
years from the implementation of the FTA, all Ecuadorian tuna
sources contacted are agreed in their concerns that tuna raw
material volumes to the European market will be dramatically
impacted.
"It is not only the volume, but also the value of the bulk
exported, as the production costs of Vietnam are much more
competitive than ours," one stated.
Investments in canneries in Vietnam are ongoing since last year
in order to leverage local processing capacity to meet EU demand,
an industry source commented.
At the time of writing (June 17), Vietnam is still subject to
the yellow card warning imposed by the EU to block illegal fishing
loopholes. A team from the European Commission's Directorate
General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) was scheduled
to visit Vietnam from May 25 to June 5 to inspect the
implementation of the EC recommendations to fight IUU fishing.
Their feedback is expected soon.
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