Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted as regards amending Protocol 2 to Decision No 1/98 of the EC-Turkey Association Council on the trade regime for agricultural products

The EU-Turkey bilateral trade relations for agricultural and fishery products are governed by the Agreement creating an association between the European Economic Community and Turkey of 12 September 1963, and in particular by EC-Turkey Association Council Decision No 1/98 of 25 February 1998 on the trade regime for agricultural products. Under this Association Council Decision, the Union has been granted certain concessions in the form of tariff quotas for bovine meat. The two quotas for bovine meat currently consist of a 5.000 tons quota of frozen bovine meat and a 14.100 tons quota of frozen bovine meat.

Since the entry into force of Association Council Decision No 1/98 exports of EU bovine meat and live animals have been fluctuating and were for long periods of time banned by Turkey. In order to facilitate the full use of the quotas and to attain a regular trade flow in these products, Turkey has proposed to extend the coverage of two quotas for bovine meat to fresh and chilled bovine meat.

Such an amendment is in the interest of the Union as it would broaden product coverage of the existing concessions, better respond to market demand in Turkey and ensure better utilization of the quotas and thereby regular trade flows. Furthermore, fresh and chilled bovine meat tends to attain a higher price on the market. The wider long term objective of this amendment is to ensure that trade under the quotas flows regularly and without restrictions.

EUR-Lex: COM(2017)374: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2017:374:FIN

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