Press Release: Sugar imports from Western Balkans: Commission proposes quotas to make trade more sustainable

The EU's trade arrangements with Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Serbia and Montenegro (Western Balkans) to grant unlimited duty-free access of sugar to the EU market led to a significant increase in EU sugar imports. Imports had risen from virtually zero in 1999 to over 270000 tonnes in 2003. This raised questions about the economic sustainability of such trade flows. This is why the European Commission proposed on 26 October to introduce tariff rate quotas per country for imports from the Western Balkans. The quotas would be set at levels that respected the trade flows. The proposal should also enable the Western Balkans' sugar sector to perform successfully under more realistic and economically sustainable conditions.