FTA / RoO
A mechanism allowing a specified quantity of a product to be imported at a lower in-quota tariff.
The WTO glossary’s definition is deliberately spare: an “import regime in which quantities inside a quota are charged lower import duty rates, than those outside (which can be high)”. The parenthesis is the substance. A tariff rate quota is not a quantitative restriction — nothing is forbidden — but the out-of-quota rate can be set high enough that trade beyond the quota does not happen. That makes the instrument’s real restrictiveness a question about two numbers, the quota volume and the out-of-quota duty, rather than about the concept. It also makes quota administration consequential: who gets access to the in-quota rate, and how allocation is decided, determines who captures the difference between the two rates.
What a glossary settles, and what it does not. The WTO’s glossary is the organisation’s own plain-language guide to its vocabulary, so it is authoritative for what the term means in WTO usage. It is not the legal text. Where an obligation is at stake, the operative words are in the agreement the glossary points to — GATT, GATS, TRIPS and the rest — and those are what a panel would read. Use the glossary to know what is being discussed, and the agreement to know what is owed.
A Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) allows a specified quantity of a product to be imported at a lower (in-quota) tariff rate. Above the quota, a higher (out-of-quota) rate applies. India-EU FTA will include TRQs for sensitive agricultural products — basmati rice, spices, processed food, and potentially dairy. TRQs are typically allocated on a first-come-first-served or licensed basis.
From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).
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