Up-to-date information on the TRQ–what it is, and how it affects imports and exports.

What is a TRQ?

A tariff-rate quota is a quota for a volume of imports that enters a country at no tariff or a low tariff. After the quota is reached, a higher tariff is applied on additional imports. Suppose a country replaces its “absolute” quota of 10,000 tons with a TRQ of 10,000 tons. The TRQ appears to differ little from the earlier “absolute” quota. The distinction is that under an absolute quota it is legally impossible to import more than 10,000 tons, whereas under a TRQ, imports can exceed 10,000 tons but a higher, over-quota tariff is applied on the excess.

In principle, a TRQ provides more market access to imports than a quota. In practice, however, many over-quota tariffs are prohibitively high and effectively exclude imports in excess of the quota. It is possible to design a TRQ so that it reproduces the trade-volume limit of the quota it replaces.