{"id":595805,"date":"2025-11-26T21:23:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T21:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/595805\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T21:23:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T21:23:31","slug":"spain-asks-u-s-to-remove-olive-oil-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/595805\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain Asks U.S. to Remove Olive Oil Tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary \"Summary\"\/<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Minister of Economy has requested that the U.S. exempt olive oil and other Spanish prod\u00aducts from the 15 per\u00adcent tar\u00adiff on EU imports, argu\u00ading it would ben\u00ade\u00adfit both Spanish pro\u00adduc\u00aders and American con\u00adsumers. Despite con\u00adcerns over the impact of the tar\u00adiffs on olive oil exports to the U.S., indus\u00adtry experts believe the long-term trend of grow\u00ading U.S. con\u00adsump\u00adtion and demand for Spanish olive oil will out\u00adweigh the short-term obsta\u00adcles posed by the tar\u00adiffs.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Minister of Economy, Trade and Business has asked the United States to exempt olive oil and other prod\u00aducts \u200b\u201cimpor\u00adtant to Spain\u201d from the 15 per\u00adcent tar\u00adiff<\/a> the U.S. has imposed on European Union imports.<\/p>\n

Carlos Cuerpo requested talks with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the side\u00adlines of a\u00a0broader meet\u00ading between European min\u00adis\u00adters and U.S. offi\u00adcials to imple\u00adment the trade agree\u00adment reached ear\u00adlier this year.<\/p>\n

Cuerpo later told local media that adding olive oil to the list of tar\u00adiff-exempt prod\u00aducts would sup\u00adport Spanish pro\u00adduc\u00aders and ben\u00ade\u00adfit American con\u00adsumers, not\u00ading that the world\u2019s sec\u00adond-largest<\/a> olive oil mar\u00adket pro\u00adduces only enough oil to cover about two per\u00adcent of domes\u00adtic demand.<\/p>\n

The impact of the tar\u00adiffs has been dif\u00adfi\u00adcult to iso\u00adlate from recent pro\u00adduc\u00adtion swings and price volatil\u00adity, cre\u00adat\u00ading a\u00a0murky pic\u00adture for ana\u00adlysts and pro\u00adduc\u00aders.<\/p>\n

In September, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food\u2019s olive oil for\u00adeign trade bul\u00adletin showed that export vol\u00adumes to the U.S. rose more than 14 per\u00adcent in the first eight months of the 2024\/25 crop year, which began in October. Even so, export val\u00adues fell by roughly 50 per\u00adcent.<\/p>\n

The Coordinator of Farmers\u2019 and Ranchers\u2019 Organizations (COAG), Spain\u2019s old\u00adest national agri\u00adcul\u00adtural asso\u00adci\u00ada\u00adtion, said spec\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion about the 2025\/26 har\u00advest<\/a> and falling prices at ori\u00adgin were pri\u00admar\u00adily respon\u00adsi\u00adble for the drop in export rev\u00adenues.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s rebound har\u00advest in 2024\/25 has also boosted export vol\u00adumes after two his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcally poor sea\u00adsons in 2022\/23 and 2023\/24, which sharply reduced ship\u00adments abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s illog\u00adi\u00adcal to try to blame U.S. tar\u00adiffs for the eco\u00adnomic losses,\u201d said Francisco Elvira, sec\u00adre\u00adtary-gen\u00aderal of COAG Ja\u00e9n. \u200b\u201cThe truth is that export vol\u00adume has increased, and the prof\u00aditabil\u00adity dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adties are due to an inter\u00adna\u00adtional drop in prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, sep\u00ada\u00adrate data ana\u00adlyzed by the Spanish news\u00adpa\u00adper El Economista sug\u00adgests the tar\u00adiffs\u2019 effects may begin to show as the new har\u00advest starts. According to the out\u00adlet, olive oil exports to the U.S. fell 31 per\u00adcent in June 2025 com\u00adpared with the pre\u00advi\u00adous year.<\/p>\n

The decline is widely attrib\u00aduted to importers front\u00adload\u00ading ship\u00adments ahead of the tariff\u2019s intro\u00adduc\u00adtion, a\u00a0trend some indus\u00adtry observers believe could con\u00adtinue into 2026.<\/p>\n

Producers and exporters also worry that even if olive oil is even\u00adtu\u00adally added to the tar\u00adiff-exempt list, the dam\u00adage may linger. They fear U.S. buy\u00aders could shift to alter\u00adna\u00adtive sup\u00adpli\u00aders in Morocco, and, to a\u00a0lesser extent, in Argentina and Chile, all of which face a\u00a010 per\u00adcent tar\u00adiff.<\/p>\n

There is fur\u00adther con\u00adcern that mar\u00adket pen\u00ade\u00adtra\u00adtion will weaken as U.S. retail prices are not expected to fall in line with declin\u00ading prices at ori\u00adgin.<\/p>\n

Joseph R. Profaci, the exec\u00adu\u00adtive direc\u00adtor<\/a> of the North American Olive Oil Association, told ABC Sevilla<\/a> that tar\u00adiffs are keep\u00ading U.S. prices from eas\u00ading.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, we expect a\u00a0very pro\u00adduc\u00adtive har\u00advest, but prices won\u2019t fall due to the tar\u00adiffs,\u201d he said. \u200b\u201cThis will sup\u00adpress the antic\u00adi\u00adpated growth in con\u00adsump\u00adtion; com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adties and house\u00adholds earn\u00ading less than $70,000 a\u00a0year will buy less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rafael Pico Lapuente, head of inter\u00adna\u00adtional pro\u00admo\u00adtion at the Spanish Olive Oil Interprofessional Organization, views the tar\u00adiffs as a\u00a0short-term obsta\u00adcle within a\u00a0longer-term trend of grow\u00ading U.S. con\u00adsump\u00adtion and ris\u00ading demand for Spanish olive oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe antic\u00adi\u00adpate it will always have some impact on Spanish exports to the U.S., but I\u00a0don\u2019t think it will be too sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant,\u201d he told ABC Sevilla, not\u00ading that all major pro\u00adduc\u00aders face com\u00adpa\u00adra\u00adble tar\u00adiffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpain, Italy, Greece and Portugal have a\u00a015 per\u00adcent tar\u00adiff, as does Turkey, while Tunisia has 25 per\u00adcent,\u201d he added. \u200b\u201cSyria has 41 per\u00adcent, and coun\u00adtries with a\u00a0ten per\u00adcent tar\u00adiff, such as Australia, Chile and Argentina, have much more expen\u00adsive oil.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary Spain\u2019s Minister of Economy has requested that the U.S. exempt olive oil and other Spanish prod\u00aducts from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-595805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115618107491583817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}