How the EU–Mercosur tariff quotas work

For most products, the EU–Mercosur agreement simply cuts the duty on a fixed timetable. For about 350 tariff lines, it doesn't. Those are the sensitive products, from beef and rice on the EU side to cheese and cars on the Mercosur side, and they get a lower rate only for a limited volume each year. That's a tariff-rate quota. If you trade one of these products, the quota decides your duty more than the schedule does.

Two rates and a volume

Every quota has three parts: the in-quota rate, the out-of-quota rate and a yearly volume. Rice into the EU shows the idea. Quota RE lets 10,000 tonnes of Mercosur rice in duty-free in year 0, rising by 10,000 tonnes a year to 60,000 tonnes from 2031. A shipment that arrives after the quota is used up pays the normal duty, which for semi-milled and milled rice (CN 1006 30 98) is EUR 175 per tonne.

The in-quota rate isn't always zero. Pork (PK) pays EUR 83 per tonne inside its quota. Fresh and frozen beef (BF1 and BF2) pay 7.5%. Cheese into the EU (CE) starts with a 10% cut on the base rate inside the quota, and that cut grows every year until the in-quota rate reaches zero in year 10. For most quotas the out-of-quota rate is simply the base rate, with no cut at all.

The EU schedule has 317 lines under a quota and the Mercosur schedule 39.

First come, first served, or licences

The EU runs its agreement quotas in two ways, and it matters a lot in practice.

First come, first served. The quota is drawn down in the order customs declarations are accepted, and the balance is published in TARIC. Rice, honey, garlic and biodiesel from Paraguay work this way. You don't need anything in advance, but you can't count on there being any quota left.

Licence-managed. You apply for an import licence ahead of time, and only licence holders get the in-quota rate. Beef, pork, poultry, cheese and milk powder are in this group. There's no public running balance.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/888 of 20 April 2026 opened the EU quotas for Mercosur goods.

What the balances look like

TARIC shows how fast some quotas have gone. These figures are from 16 October 2026.

The rice quota (order number 09.0878) was opened for year 0 at 6,666.667 tonnes, two thirds of the 10,000-tonne annual volume, because year 0 only started on 1 May. It was used up by late August. The last import charged against it was on 23 August 2026, so rice since then has paid the full EUR 175 per tonne.

Honey (09.0881) is split into quarterly periods. The July to September tranche of 1,875 tonnes was gone in two weeks, with the last import on 15 July. The October to December tranche opened with 1,722.96 tonnes, and 959.73 tonnes were left on 16 October.

Not every quota runs out. The biodiesel quota for Paraguay (09.0875) opened at 33,333 tonnes and still had 28,314 tonnes left.

Quotas on the Mercosur side

Mercosur's quotas cover dairy and a few processed foods. Milk powder, cheese, infant formula and garlic each have one. Chocolate and preserved tomatoes have their own quota tables, with in-quota rates that fall year by year.

Cheese is a good example of how they combine with applied rates. Brazil applies 14.4% today on cheese like NCM 0406.90.90, below the 16% base rate. Inside quota TRQ-2, which starts at 3,000 tonnes and grows to 30,000 tonnes, the 2026 rate is 12.9%. Mercosur doesn't publish quota balances, so the calculator can't tell you how much is left.

Cars have a quota of their own. The passenger-car lines in staging category 15V keep Mercosur's full base rate until the end of 2032 and only then start falling. In the meantime, a quota of 50,000 vehicles a year enters at half the base rate. For a car under NCM 8703.23.10 that's 17.5% instead of 35%. The quota is split between Argentina (15,500), Brazil (32,000), Paraguay (750) and Uruguay (1,750) and runs until 2034.

How the calculator handles quotas

When a line is under a quota, the calculator shows the in-quota and out-of-quota duty side by side, the volume for the year, and the TARIC balance where there is one. If the quota is exhausted or licence-managed, it says so. In-quota savings always assume you actually get quota, which for exhausted or licence-managed quotas may not be the case.

For a worked example with beef, read beef under the EU–Mercosur deal. The glossary explains terms like carcass weight equivalent, and the methodology page has the full list of data sources.