Following the recent trade deal reached between the United States and the EU, both sides have confirmed they have agreed on a Framework on an Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair and Balanced Trade, with arrangements outlined for preferential market access for a range of products, including seafood.
In a joint statement, the US and EU said the framework agreement represents a “concrete demonstration of our commitment to fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial trade and investment”, and explained that will put the trade and investment relationship between the two parties “on a solid footing” and will reinvigorate their economies’ reindustrialisation.
“It reflects acknowledgement by the European Union of the concerns of the United States and our joint determination to resolve our trade imbalances and unleash the full potential of our combined economic power. The United States and the European Union intend this Framework Agreement to be a first step in a process that can be further expanded over time to cover additional areas and continue to improve market access and increase their trade and investment relationship,” it stated.
Included in the framework’s key terms is the European Union’s stated intention to “eliminate tariffs on all US industrial goods and to provide preferential market access for a wide range of US seafood and agricultural goods”.
It also affirms that the European Union will immediately take the necessary steps to extend the joint statement of the United States and the European Union on a tariff agreement announced on 21 August 2020, with respect to lobster (that expired 31 July 2025), coupled with an expanded product scope to include processed lobster.
The new trade agreement has been welcomed by the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) in the United States for confirming the EU’s commitment to eliminate all EU tariffs on industrial goods, including seafood, and for reviving and expanding the deal on American lobster.
Growing market access for US seafood, like lobster, has been a tenet of NFI’s trade advocacy work, noted NFI President and CEO Lisa Wallenda Picard.
In a statement, she said: “We applaud the Administration on its success in expanding markets for American seafood globally. We urge USTR to ensure that the European Union moves expeditiously to put these commitments into effect, so that US seafood exporters and their American workers can capitalise on these advances as soon as possible. These types of wins will have a demonstrable impact on US companies, while providing European and other consumers premium, sustainable US seafood products.”
According to the framework agreement, the United States and the European Union share one of the world’s largest economic relationships, supported by mutual investment stocks exceeding US$5 trillion, and the intention is to promote and facilitate mutual investments on both sides of the Atlantic.
In this context, European companies are expected to invest an additional $600 billion across strategic sectors in the United States through 2028, it said.
