Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion of an agreement in the form of an exchange of letters between the European Union and Iceland concerning additional trade preferences in agricultural products

The EU and Iceland are signatories to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA Agreement) which provides for the free movement of goods, with the exception of agricultural and fisheries products. As regards agriculture, Article 19 of the EEA Agreement provides that the Parties will carry out, every two years, review of the conditions of trade in agricultural products and decide on a reciprocal and mutually beneficial basis on the further reduction of any type of barriers to trade in the agricultural sector.

The negotiations were conducted from 4 July 2012 to 17 September 2015. This Agreement was initialled by the Parties on 17 September 2015 and provides for further trade preferences for trade in agricultural products, including additional fully liberalised tariff lines. As a result almost 90% of EU agricultural products will enter Iceland duty-free. For more sensitive products such as meat, dairy, fruit, vegetable and ornamental plants, additional tariff quotas or tariff reductions have been agreed upon.

The intention of both Parties is that this Agreement enters into force on the seventh month following the date on which the Parties have notified each other that the required internal procedures have been completed.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)563: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2016:563:FIN

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)564: Proposal for a Council Decision on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, of an agreement in the form of an exchange of letters between the European Union and Iceland concerning additional trade preferences in agricultural products http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2016:564:FIN

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