A move four years in the making, Canada and the EU’s first free trade agreement will eliminate most duties on seafood products.
Canada’s seafood exports to the EU were worth an average of CAD 400 million (USD 385 million, EUR 279 million) annually between 2010 and 212. The exports face average EU tariffs of 11 percent, with highs of 25 percent.
When Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) takes affect, almost 96 percent of EU tariffs for seafood products will be duty-free. In seven years, 100 percent of the tariffs will be duty-free.
EU tariffs ranging between 6 and 20 percent will be eliminated on products including frozen shrimp, cooked and peeled shrimp, frozen lobster, live lobster frozen mackerel, salmon and more.
“It is very early so I don’t know how it’s going to really impact our business,” Michael Tourkistas, East Coast Seafood CEO and president told SeafoodSource during Day 2 of Seafood Barcelona. “I certainly believe and hope it will be a very positive situation. It will open markets that today don’t even exist.
“We expect a huge boost in our export business for processed products [like lobster meat, tails — anything that’s not a whole lobster]. The savings can be about high as 20 percent, that’s a big number.
“For whole lobster, it’s about 8 percent savings. That’s substantial, especially if something ends up in a restaurant. We should see lower prices on menus. On the retail side we’ll also be able to have price points that will make the sales more approachable to customers,” said Tourkistas.
“The EU market is the biggest in the world with about 500 m illion people. Canada has about 30 million so this is a huge opportunity for exports and creation of jobs. It’s going to be unbelievable.”
