Fish and Crustaceans

Information on how authorised use can be used to bring fish and crustaceans into the UK.

Authorised use can be used to bring certain fish or crustaceans into the UK when they鈥檙e being used for:聽

  • 辫谤辞肠别蝉蝉颈苍驳听
  • use in the industrial manufacture of products

What goods are eligible

Eligible goods can be identified in chapters 3 and 16 of Authorised use: Eligible goods and authorised uses.听听

Any imported fish and crustaceans under authorised use must be processed for human consumption.

Industrial manufacturing

When the fish are for use in the industrial manufacture of products they must be:聽

  • cooked or otherwise prepared or preserved, for example, fish fillets covered with batter or breadcrumbs, tuna fish which has had a marinade added or cooked fish聽
  • boiled, steamed, grilled, fried, roasted or otherwise cooked聽
  • prepared or preserved in vinegar, oil, fish marinades (fish prepared in wine, vinegar and so on with added spices or other ingredients), fish sausages or fish paste聽
  • prepared or preserved, for example, finely homogenised fish, pasteurised or sterilised fish聽
  • prepared following certain processes

Processing

Authorised use can be used for fish and crustaceans that are intended for one or more of these operations:聽

  • 诲颈肠颈苍驳听
  • 蹿颈濒濒别迟颈苍驳听
  • production of flaps聽
  • cutting of frozen blocks聽
  • splitting of frozen interleaved fillet blocks

Fish and crustaceans intended solely for one or more of the following operations are not eligible:聽

  • 肠濒别补苍颈苍驳听
  • 驳耻迟迟颈苍驳听
  • 丑别补诲颈苍驳听
  • cutting (other than the eligible operations mentioned)聽
  • 蝉补尘辫濒颈苍驳听
  • 蝉辞谤迟颈苍驳听
  • 濒补产别濒濒颈苍驳听
  • 辫补肠办颈苍驳听
  • 肠丑颈濒濒颈苍驳听
  • 蹿谤别别锄颈苍驳听
  • deep-蹿谤别别锄颈苍驳听
  • 迟丑补飞颈苍驳听
  • 蝉别辫补谤补迟颈辞苍听
  • treatments carried out at a retail or catering establishment

Prawns

To qualify for authorised use, prawns under tariff heading 0306 need to be subjected to an industrial process, which would result in their classification under tariff heading 1605, for example, incorporation in pies, vol-au-vents or curries.聽

The manufacture of prawn sandwiches must be undertaken at a factory level for onward supply, and must be of the type sold in supermarkets, shops and restaurants. However, sandwich making undertaken at a retail or catering establishment is not eligible.

Tariff Quotas

Some fish are subject to tariff quotas. Quotas allow a limited amount of goods to be imported at a lower duty rate. Once the quota has been used up, the duty will revert to the out-of-quota rate, which may be the third-country duty or a preferential rate.

Quotas can be non-preferential (open to many countries) or preferential (restricted to a particular trading partner). Read UK Trade Tariff: duty suspensions and autonomous tariff quotas for fish products for a list of commodity codes subjected to quotas.