Europêche urges EU to scrap tuna

Europêche has called on the European Council to reject the rollover of the bloc’s 35,000-tonne autonomous tariff quota (ATQ) for tuna loins and eliminate the system from 2027.

The fishing industry association argues that successive trade agreements have significantly expanded preferential access to the EU market, making an additional global zero-duty quota increasingly disconnected from market conditions. Countries including Indonesia, Mexico, India and Vietnam already benefit or will benefit from preferential access, while negotiations continue with Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia.

“Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico… and Thailand and Philippines are coming: how many trade agreements will continue adding new volumes of low-cost duty-free tuna loins competing with European products on the EU market?” asked Xavier Leduc, president of Europêche.

“Enough is enough. We call for the complete elimination of the EU tuna loins ATQ system from 2027 onwards.”

Europêche said the existing 35,000-tonne quota is typically exhausted within the first days of January, with benefits concentrated among Asian suppliers. Its calculations based on January trade flows from 2024 to 2026 indicate China and Indonesia accounted for almost 88% of tuna-loin imports from the main ATQ supplier countries.

Indonesia currently uses 26% of the ATQ and will receive a further 5,000-tonne duty-free bilateral quota under the EU-Indonesia CEPA. The modernised EU-Mexico agreement adds another 6,000 tonnes annually during its first three years, bringing the additional volume from these two agreements alone to 11,000 tonnes.

Europêche also highlighted a price disparity, saying European-origin tuna loins averaged approximately €4,900 per tonne in 2023, compared with €3,500 for Chinese-origin products.

The association is also pressing for sustainability conditions from 2027, including traceability, fisheries management, social and environmental requirements and compliance with international labour standards.

“The Commission launched a public consultation and commissioned an independent study on sustainability criteria, but neither has been made public,” said Anne-France Mattlet, director of the Europêche Tuna Group. She called for the evidence to be published before further tariff benefits are granted.