TARIFF QUOTAs: ADMINISTRATION METHODS, FILL RATES
and notification practices
2015-2023

Background Paper by the Secretariat[1]

Revision

1.1.  At the Ninth Session of the Ministerial Conference, Ministers adopted the Decision on "Understanding on Tariff Rate Quota Administration Provisions of Agricultural Products, as defined in Article 2 of the Agreement on Agriculture" (_WT/MIN(13)/39-WT/L/914), hereafter referred to as the "Bali Decision". Paragraph 13 of the Bali Decision mandated a review of the operation of this Decision no later than four years following its adoption. The Review discussions commenced at the October 2017 meeting of the Committee.[2] After two years of detailed deliberations, the Committee adopted the report[3] of the Review and the associated recommendations at its 31 October 2019 meeting, for transmission to the General Council. The General Council considered the report at its December 2019 meeting and approved the recommendations contained in Annex 2 thereto.[4] The agreed recommendations contain several measures and processes aimed at enhancing transparency and improving TRQ notification practices.

1.2.  The original background paper on "Tariff quota Administration Methods and Fill rates, 2007‑2016" in _G/AG/W/183 of 31 July 2018 was prepared by the Secretariat in order to facilitate the Review discussions. The agreed recommendations[5] of the Review require the Secretariat to 'regularly update the information on tariff quota administration and fill rates as included in the _G/AG/W/183 as well as the updated information on which Members have notified fill rates and on questions raised in the Committee concerning fill rates'. The agreed recommendations also require this Secretariat background note to include 'a list of TRQs where no Table MA:2 notification has been submitted or where the fill rate is below 65%' as well as 'a list of existing TRQ notification practices of Members including in cases where a scheduled TRQ was not opened'.

1.3.  Paragraph 3 of the agreed recommendations of the 2017-19 Review provided for the Committee to undertake regular triennial reviews of the operation of the Bali Decision. The Committee concluded the first such triennial review at its meeting on 27-28 June 2023.[6] During the first triennial review, the Committee emphasized the 'importance of timeliness and completeness of MA:1 And MA:2 notifications and the need to implement the recommendations of the 2019 review exercise as contained in Annex 2 to _G/AG/29'.[7] The Committee also encouraged Members implementing country-specific TRQ allocations, as inscribed in the schedule, to present imports data in their annual MA:2 notifications disaggregated by quota-holder supplying countries, along with total in-quota imports.[8]

1.4.  The revised paper updates the information contained in the previous version of the background paper in _G/AG/W/183/Rev.2 dated 7 September 2022, while also taking into account the discussions in the Committee on the follow-up of the Bali Decision, including during the first triennial review. The revision updates: i) the list of all TRQs where the fill rate during the covered period remained below 65%; ii) the section that presents information on Members' TRQ notification practices including in cases where a scheduled TRQ was not opened; and iii) the tabular summary of questions raised in the Committee after the adoption of the Bali Decision concerning TRQ fill rates included in a separate annex to this paper. The revision includes a new attachment (number 3) on Members' MA:1 notifications issued since 1995, showing their composition in terms of the reported TRQs, along with associated administration arrangements and subsequent changes thereto. The information in the revised note covers the period from 2015 to 2023. As in the original background paper and its first two revisions, the information in this revised paper has been compiled mainly from Members' Schedules[9], Tables MA:1 and MA:2 notifications and the record of the discussions in the Committee on Agriculture.

1.5.  The revised paper is organized as follows: section two describes the core data on scheduled agricultural tariff quotas. The third section defines the various tariff quota administration categories and identifies those tariff quotas that were not opened during the period under review. Section four summarizes information on tariff quota imports, administration methods as well as country-specific quota allocations and fill rates. Section five provides information on Members' notification of fill rates and their practices regarding Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) notifications, particularly in cases where a scheduled tariff quota was not opened. It also covers details of Members' notification practices regarding TRQ administration arrangements. Annex A presents the simple average fill rates by Member and by administration method for the period 2015-2023. A list of questions concerning TRQ fill rates raised in Committee meetings for the period following the adoption of the Bali Decision is contained in Annex B. Annex C incorporates specific technical notes, organized by Member and tariff quota identifier (TQ ID).

1.6.   Three Attachments (available separately, with the first two in Excel format and the third in Word format, as addenda to this document) provide respectively: (i) the yearly data for notified in‑quota imports, administration methods and fill rates disaggregated at the tariff quota level, (ii) a list of all tariff quotas where the fill rate is below 65%,[10] one of the thresholds to be satisfied in order to trigger the initiation of the underfill mechanism forming part of the Bali Decision, and (iii) the record of Members' MA:1 notifications issued since 1995, along with their coverage of scheduled TRQs and the associated administration arrangements, as well as any reported changes to administration arrangements of TRQs over time. This third attachment is organized for all individual Members subject to scheduled TRQ commitments. It provides information on when and in which Table MA:1 notification the information on administration arrangement was notified for different tariff quotas in the schedule. Additionally, the attachment includes details of the latest administration arrangement for those TRQs, as notified by Members in their MA:1, and in some cases MA:2, notifications.

2  DATA

2.1.  This paper presents data on scheduled agricultural tariff quotas over a recent nine-year period, i.e. from 2015 to 2023. Each tariff quota is characterized by the scheduled commitment, the notified annual in-quota imports and the notified administration method. The tariff quotas set out in Part I, Section I-B of Members' Schedules (or, in the case of Brazil and the United States of America, Part I, Section I-A) are used as main points of reference.

2.2.  Table 1 presents the total number of agriculture tariff quotas included in Members' Schedules organized by year and by Member, except where zero tariff quota quantity levels were scheduled[11]. Similarly, tariff quotas that are explicitly indicated to have been eliminated in a Schedule are not counted in the totals from the year they are eliminated. [12] In the case of the European Union (EU), the certified EU-25 Schedule is contained in _WT/LET/1220, effective as of 1 December 2016. For reporting years 2015 to 2020, the EU's Table MA:1 and MA:2 notifications include modified tariff quota quantities as well as additional tariff quotas resulting from negotiations under GATT Articles XXIV:6 and XXVIII, pertaining to the accession of Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania to the EU. Accordingly, the revised note for these years uses the draft EU-28 Schedule[13] as the point of reference. The United Kingdom (UK) ceased to be a member State of the European Union on 1 February 2020. Following the end of the transition period under the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, the information in the note for the period starting 1 January 2021 concerning the European Union covers its current 27 member States and the United Kingdom is treated separately. Finally, in the paper, "Switzerland" refers to "Switzerland-Liechtenstein".