The revised tariff, published on 3 July 2020 in the Official Journal, is calculated according to EU regulation 642/2010, which explains that the import duty for the three cereals is based on the difference between a European reference price and the world benchmark for maize – the US price, calculated as cif maize price (i.e. cost, insurance and freight included) at the port of Rotterdam.
The tariff for maize, sorghum and rye was updated three times in the last three months. At first an increase of the import duties was due to the drop in US cif maize price, mainly as a result of the collapse of bioethanol demand in the US. Later on, with the situation starting to recover, the US maize price started increasing again, triggering a first reduction of import tariffs, and has continued steadily increasing since then. In parallel, a lower maize harvest in the US is now expected in 2020/21, pushing further up maize prices. Now that prices on the world market for maize have significantly increased, the import tariffs are set at EUR 0 per tonne again.
