Trade agreements and seafood tariffs
Trade agreements made by the EU with other nations and trading blocs will cease to apply in the UK on 1 January 2021. The UK has negotiated its own set of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and continuation agreements as it seeks to reproduce the effects of the EU agreements.
A list of existing UK trade agreements with non-EU countries is maintained on the gov.uk website.
The UK Global Tariff
The UK Global Tariff is the schedule of UK tariffs that will apply to goods entering the UK from 1 January 2021. The UK announced a trade agreement with the EU on 24 December meaning there will be zero tariffs on seafood of EU or UK origin traded between the UK and EU. We will publish the details once they are known.
The tariffs in the UK Global Tariff are the UK’s ‘Most Favoured Nation’ (MFN) tariffs, and they replace the EU’s Common External Tariffs. The tariffs apply to goods where there is no Free Trade Agreement, preferential tariff regime or other agreement. If the UK and the EU fail to arrive at an agreement on tariffs, the UK Global Tariff will apply to imports from EU member states.
Compared to the EU’s Common External Tariff, the tariffs in the UK schedule are identical or slightly reduced for the same commodities. Tariffs that are reduced have been rounded down compared to the EU’s schedule. The rounding down is to align them with simplified tariff bandings. The tariff reductions range between 0 and 4% over all seafood product descriptions, with an average reduction of 0.7%.
The table below shows how the UK tariffs compare with the EU tariffs on a range of imported seafood.
| Commodity code | Product description | Current EU Tariff | UK Global Tariff |
| 03025110 | Fresh or chilled cod Gadus morhua | 12.0% | 12.0% |
| 03034985 | Frozen tunas of the genus Thunnus (excl. tunas for industrial processing or preservation and Thunnus alalunga, Thunnus albacares, Thunnus obesus, Thunnus thynnus, Thunnus orientalis and Thunnus maccoyii) | 22.0% | 20.0% |
| 03047500 | Frozen fillets of Alaska pollack Theragra chalcogramma | 13.7% | 12.0% |
| 03047190 | Frozen fillets of cod Gadus morhua, Gadus ogac | 7.5% | 6.0% |
| 03047200 | Frozen fillets of haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus | 7.5% | 6.0% |
| 03063590 | Cold-water shrimps and prawns "Pandalus spp.", whether in shell or not, live, fresh or chilled | 12.0% | 12.0% |
| 03061792 | Frozen shrimps of the genus Penaeus, even smoked, whether in shell or not, incl. shrimps in shell, cooked by steaming or by boiling in water | 12.0% | 12.0% |
| 03071190 | Oysters, even in shell, live, fresh or chilled (excl. live flat oysters "Ostrea" weighing "incl. shell" <= 40 g) | 9.0% | 8.0% |
| 16041991 | Frozen raw fish fillets, coated with batter or breadcrumbs, whether or not pre-fried in oil (excl. salmonidae, herrings, sardines, sardinella, brisling or sprats, tunas, skipjack and Atlantic bonito, bonito "Sarda spp.", mackerel, anchovies, fish of species Euthynnus and fish of species Orcynopsis unicolor) | 7.5% | 6.0% |
| 16052190 | Shrimps and prawns, prepared or preserved, in immediate packings of a net content of > 2 kg (excl. merely smoked, and in airtight containers) | 20.0% | 20.0% |
You can check all of the UK trade tariffs that apply from 1 January 2021 on Gov.uk.
Get in touch
If you're looking for advice and information on tarrifs or trade agreements, email our Regulation experts at regulation@seafish.co.uk