Import duties for agricultural products

Article | Last updated: 08/09/2021 | Ministry of Agriculture and Food

Import duties to protect domestic agricultural production is an important instrument in the Norwegian agricultural policy. Most agricultural commodities produced in Norway are protected. At the same time, more than 80 % of agricultural imports enters duty free. For products such as sugar, rice, fruit and vegetables outside the Norwegian season, there is no import duty. All developing countries have reduced tariffs on exports of agricultural products to Norway. The 52 poorest countries in the world have duty free access.

Import Protection

In 2018, Norway imported agricultural products at 66,5 billion NOK. 64 percent of imports are from the EU, 23 percent from developing countries and 13 percent from other developed countries.

Slightly simplified, the Norwegian import protection for agricultural commodities may be divided into three groups of products with high, medium and no tariff protection:

High tariff	Medium tariff	Low/no tariff
Meat	Chocolate	Beer/soda
Milk	Confectionery	Sugar, coffee, tea
Cheese	Pizza	Rice, corn
Cereals Eggs	Potatoes	Bananas
	Fruit and vegetables	Oranges
		Dog and cat food
		A number of plants and plant parts

Imports of goods with high tariffs are limited. However, import quotas with low or no tariffs on such products are granted through trade agreements (WTO, EEA and EFTA trade agreements).

The group with moderate tariffs includes e.g processed agricultural products.

The group with no tariffs mainly includes products that are not produced in Norway.

The Norwegian Agricultural Agency is responsible for managing the import protection. By administrative decision they can lower the tariffs to increase import in response to Norwegian market demand.