Sheepmeat

Australian sheepmeat is constrained by a small sheepmeat quota in the EU. The Australian product faces competition from the domestic market (which has a marked preference for locally sourced product) and New Zealand product, given its large quota allocation.

Sheepmeat consumption in the EU is expected to slowly decrease over the long-term, while production is predicted to fall by a larger magnitude as a result of reduced profitability and government support of the industry. Consequently, imports are forecast to rise.

Market access

EU sheepmeat and goat meat import regime

In the original EU of six member states, access for sheepmeat was not an issue. France operated its own system of opening and closing its borders to imports. In 1973, the UK and Ireland joined the EU and in 1980 a sheepmeat policy was introduced.

The EU negotiated a series of Voluntary Restraint Agreements (VRAs) with non-EU suppliers. These supplying countries agreed to limit exports to the EU in return for a lower rate of duty, which was eventually reduced to zero. VRAs were removed after the signing of the Uruguay Round agreement and individual country tariff rate quotas (TRQs) with high above-quota duties replaced them.

Current quotas

Today, most live sheep and sheepmeat imports enter the EU via TRQs, subject to zero customs duty. The TRQs are administered by supplying countries and are managed on a calendar year basis. The following table details current sheepmeat quota access levels for third countries and the prior VRA tonnage levels.

*Includes Greenland, Faeroes and other origins.

The sheepmeat TRQs include lamb, mutton and goatmeat. The TRQs are based on a carcase weight equivalent (cwe) basis. This means that for every kilogram of bone-in product, 1kg of quota is used. For boneless product a formula is used where 1kg of boneless lamb uses 1.67kg of quota, and 1kg of boneless mutton or goatmeat uses 1.81kg of quota.

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