Temporary rates of customs duty on seafood imports after EU Exit

The UK government has announced the rates of customs duty (tariffs) that will apply to imports of goods into the UK if the UK leaves the EU with no deal. The tariffs will be valid initially for 12 months. The government will be consulting on future permanent tariffs during this period. The new regime would affect only imports into the UK.

The announcement lists 21 seafood products that will incur duty. These new tariffs mirror the tariffs that currently apply to seafood product imported into the EU, and range from 7.5% to 15% for unprocessed fish and are set at 24% for prepared or preserved tuna.

A large proportion of the seafood commodities that are imported into the UK are not listed in the government announcement and therefore will not incur a duty on import. These products include salmon, whitefish (other than monkfish), pelagic fish and bivalve molluscs. Among the zero-tariffed seafood commodities are those currently covered by the European Union autonomous tariff quotas.

The government announcement can be accessed through this link.

The tariffs in the UK government announcement are:

Commodity Code	Seafood Product	Tariff Rate	Additional Information
03038910	Frozen freshwater fish, not elsewhere specified	8%	Excluding fish fillets and other fish meat of heading 0304
03038990	Frozen fish, not elsewhere specified	15%	Excluding fish fillets and other fish meat of heading 0304
03048910	Frozen fillets of freshwater fish, not elsewhere specified	9%
03048990	Frozen fish fillets, not elsewhere specified	9%
03049965	Frozen meat (whether or not minced) of Monkfish (Lophius spp)	7.5%	Excluding fillets
03061792	Frozen shrimps of the genus “Penaeus”	12%	Even smoked or whether in the shell of not - including shrimps in shell cooked by steaming or by boiling in water
03061799	Frozen shrimps and prawns (excluding “Pandalidae” “Crangon” deepwater rose shrimps “Parapenaeus longirostris” and “Penaeus”)	12%	Even smoked whether in the shell or not - including shrimps and prawns in the shell cooked by steaming or by boiling in water
03061990	Frozen crustaceans fit for human consumption (excluding rock lobster and other sea crawfish, lobsters, shrimps, prawns, crabs, freshwater crayfish and Norway lobsters “Nephrops norvegicus”)	12%	Even smoked, whether in the shell or not, including crustaceans in the shell cooked by steaming or by boiling in water
16041421	Prepared or preserved skipjack whole or in pieces in vegetable oil	24%	Excluding minced
16041426	Fillets known as “Loins” of skipjack prepared or preserved whole or in pieces	24%	Excluding such products in vegetable oil or minced
16041428	Prepared or preserved skipjack whole or in pieces	24%	Excluding minced fillets known as “loins” and such products in vegetable oil
16041431	Prepared or preserved yellowfin tuna “Thunnus albacares” whole or in pieces in vegetable oil	24%	Excluding minced
16041438	Prepared or preserved yellowfin tuna “Thunnus albacares” whole or in pieces	24%	Excluding minced fillets known as “loins” and such products in vegetable oil
16041441	Prepared or preserved tuna whole or in pieces in vegetable oil (excluding minced skipjack and yellowfin tuna “Thunnus albacares”)	24%
16041448	Prepared or preserved tuna whole or in pieces (excluding minced fillets known as “loins” and such products in vegetable oil skipjack and yellowfin tuna “Thunnus albacares”)	24%
03019190,  03021180, 03031490,  03044290, 03048290, 03054300	Various trout products	*	*See the original guidance and links therein for tariff information

*See the original guidance and links therein for tariff information

Although there are only 21 seafood products on the new tariff list, the implications of these changes are potentially significant. Whereas previously the UK did not pay any duty on seafood products imported from the EU, in a no-deal situation UK importers will pay duty on the listed products if they are importing these products directly from the EU. These listed products already attract a tariff if they are imported directly from outside the EU and this will continue. Seafood products that are not on the list will continue to be imported with a tariff of zero. A summary can be found in the table below:

Description	‘Current’ full tariff	‘No deal’ full tariff
Listed products imported from the EU	Zero	UK tariff
Unlisted products imported from the EU	Zero	Zero (no change)
Listed products imported from outside the EU	EU tariff	UK tariff (as this is equal to the EU tariff, there is no change)
Unlisted products imported from outside the EU	EU tariff	Zero

Preferential tariffs

The government announcement also contains information on preferential tariffs on imports from a number of countries, including Chile, the Faroe Islands, and countries that benefit from the General System of Preferences (GSP) scheme as follows:

• All seafood from Chile will be zero tariffed except for the seven tariff lines listed that cover prepared and prepared tuna.
• The arrangement for the Faroe Islands allows an additional five product lines of frozen fish and shrimps to be tariff free.
• All seafood from the Eastern and Southern Africa States (Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Zimbabwe) will be zero tariffed. (Fishery products from Zimbabwe is not currently authorised for import.)
• Imported seafood from countries currently benefiting from the GSP scheme will continue to benefit from the same low or zero tariffs after a no-deal exit from the EU.
• Preferential tariffs are listed for seafood from Israel, Palestine and Switzerland.
• Quotas

The UK government has released a draft list of tariff quotas for imported products, including seafood. Where a tariff quota applies, it will be possible to import limited amounts of particular types of seafood at a lower rate of duty. The quotas are listed in the Tariff Quota Rate Reference Document, available here.

This Tariff Quota Rate Reference Document has been published in advance of a Statutory Instrument establishing the tariff rate quotas and establishing a regime for managing them. Management will be mostly on a first-come first-served allocation system. However, until the statutory instrument is available, there is no further detail on their application or their management.

Seafood product quotas covered by the Autonomous Tariff Quotas (ATQs) are listed under Part B, Section 2, of the Reference Document. As these products will be zero tariffed if the UK trade tariff comes into force, irrespective of the volume imported, there are no tariff quota volumes associated with them.