The European Commission has announced plans to bring forward by three months – to 1 April – its planned introduction of tariff preferences for developing countries for those states affected by the Tsunami disaster.


European Union (EU) tariffs cuts will follow for a wide range of food products exported by India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand. These will especially focus on fish, with all fishery products imported to the EU having duties reduced.


These even include shrimps from Thailand, which the Commission judges “extremely sensitive” to European producers, where tariffs will fall from 12% to 4.2%. Sri Lanka will get special treatment, with 90% of all exports to enter the EU duty free.