The EU has announced plans to suspend standard import tariffs on ammonia and urea, in a move to offset extra costs imposed by the EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).
Trade and economic security commissioner Maros Sefcovic said the EU will ‘swiftly’ implement the suspension for the remaining most-favoured nation tariffs, and may include other fertilizers.
Urea currently carries a 6.5% standard tariff rate in the EU, applied to origins such as Russia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Nigeria. The standard ammonia tariff is 5.5%, and this applies to Middle Eastern origins as well as the US. Key sources for both products – such as Egypt and Algeria for urea, and Algeria and Trinidad and Tobago for ammonia – are already exempt from tariffs.
The change came after European agriculture ministers, including those from France and Italy, raised alarms at a meeting with commissioners about CBAM's financial impact on farmers.
CBAM, which took effect on 1 January, imposes a carbon cost for certain goods imported into the EU, including ammonia and all fertilizers containing nitrogen from countries that are not already subject to the EU emissions trading system (ETS) or a system fully linked to the EU ETS.
The EU previously suspended urea and ammonia import tariffs in 2022 for a period of six months.
Original article by Aidan Hall and Claudia Wlk on Argus Media.