EU to suspend import duties

The European Commission (EC) officially proposed to suspend, for one year, the most favoured nation (MFN) duties on imports of several key nitrogen-containing fertilizers and inputs for their production, including ammonia and urea, officials said 24 February. The tariff suspension will be implemented for all countries, except Russia and Belarus, through duty-free tariff rate quotas, the Commission noted. Imports beyond these quotas will be subject to standard MFN duties, it added.

“The volume of the quota corresponds to the volume of Union MFN imports of 2024, except imports from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, but increased by a top-up of 20% of the volumes imported into the Union from these two countries in 2024,” the EC said.

The products included under the proposal are ammonia, urea, ammonium sulphate (AS), calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN), urea ammonium nitrate (UAN), NPKs, MAP and DAP. Quota volumes are as follows: ammonia (300,000 t), urea (890,000 t), AS (413,000 t), CAN (27,000 t), UAN (583,000 t), NPKs (360,000 t), MAP (87,000 t) and DAP (83,000 t). Import tariffs on fertilizers from most-favoured nations are 6.5%, excluding those on Russia and Belarus, which are subject to higher “staged” tariffs to end EU dependency on those origins.

For urea, CRU calculations suggest the total quota allocation for MFN imports (excluding Russia and Belarus) amount to 750,000 tonnes, against 2025 imports totalling 770,000 tonnes. Countries exempt from MFN tariff status include Egypt, Algeria and Uzbekistan. The quota set by the EC (890,000 tonnes) should allow for some price relief for as long as the MFN tariff exemption is in place through mid-2027, while there is also 120,000 tonnes worth of incremental upside import potential from MFN countries on the basis of 2025 import data.