Animal feed manufacturers in the Republic of Ireland can apply for tariff and quota exemptions on selected products for a limited time.
Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is inviting applications from companies that manufacture or process certain agricultural and industrial products to apply for limited exemptions on imports of key ingredients. Successful applicants will be able to import free of tariff duty raw materials, components and intermediate products from outside the European Union (EU) area.
For each material involved, each application will need to fulfill three conditions. First, the product must be further processed by the company applying. Second, it must not be available within the EU. And third, the trade must generate duty savings of at least EUR15,000 (US$17,780) per year.
If one company cannot achieve the latter goal on its own, the department says it may join with one or more other businesses to do so. Furthermore, tariffs may also be suspended on capital goods such as equipment and materials if they are required in the production process.
The minister for trade promotion at the Department of Enterprise welcomed the latest call for applications under the scheme.
“I encourage Irish companies to avail of the tariff suspensions and quotas scheme,” said Robert Troy, TD. “This scheme represents a valuable opportunity for Irish manufacturers to reduce the costs of sourcing materials that are not available in the EU.”
Applications are opened twice a year — once in January, and again in July. For this current round of the scheme, hard-copy applications must be received by the department by close of business on July 30.
Successful applications will come into effect from July 1, 2022.
More on the EU tariff suspension and quota scheme
According to the department, the tariff quota scheme is designed to address shortages in the availability of required materials within the EU.
Under Article 28 of the Treaty of Rome, duties may be temporarily suspended under the Common Customs Tariff (CCT). These are applied on imports of raw materials and components for further processing. However, suspensions may apply where it can be established that industry within the EU is unable to obtain supplies of the product, or suitable substitutes.
As with duty suspensions, autonomous tariff quotas may be applied for certain products. Supply of these products within the EU must be inadequate to meet the needs of a particular industry.
