UK Extends Duty on Turkish Rainbow Trout Until 30 January 2031

United Kingdom keeps its extra import duty on small Turkish rainbow trout at current rates until 30 January 2031.

The UK government has extended its extra import duty on small rainbow trout from Turkey for five years, until 30 January 2031.

The decision is set out in trade remedies notice 2026/31, published on 5 November 2026 and in effect from 6 November 2026¹. It keeps the duty at the rates that already applied, so the cost of each shipment does not change.

In short, Turkish rainbow trout entering the UK will keep paying the same extra duty, from 1.5% to 9.5%, for five more years. The rate depends on which Turkish company made the fish, and a signed invoice declaration is needed to claim a lower company rate.

What did the UK decide on Turkish rainbow trout?

The Secretary of State accepted a recommendation from the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), the UK body that investigates unfair import competition¹. The TRA had recommended extending the duty on rainbow trout from Turkey for a further 5 years.

The duty is a countervailing duty, an extra import tax that offsets subsidies a foreign government gives its producers. It is charged on top of normal customs duty. The new notice replaces taxation notice 2021/12, which set the duty until now¹.

The duty now applies until 30 January 2031¹. That is five years after the date the duty would have ended, 30 January 2026, if no review had started.

Why did the Trade Remedies Authority review the trout duty?

A trade remedy duty in the UK lasts for a fixed period. Before it ends, it can be checked in an expiry review, a study of whether the duty is still needed. The TRA opened this review, case ER0080, on 22 January 2026².

The review was requested by the British Trout Association, which the TRA case page lists as the applicant². UK trout farms also registered to take part. The case page names Harome Trout Farm Limited, Britford Trout Farm and Kames Fish Farming Limited as domestic producers².

On the Turkish side, the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Türkiye registered as a foreign government and sent a questionnaire reply². A Turkish seafood trader, Özer Gıda, also registered as a contributor.

During the review, the TRA held a public consultation on whether the duty should continue¹. After it weighed the responses and made its own assessment, it recommended the extension.

Did the duty stay in force during the review?

Yes. On 22 January 2026, the government published trade remedies notice 2026/3³. It kept the duty in place while the review ran, from 22 January 2026.

Under that notice, the duty was treated as continuing until the TRA made its decision and the Secretary of State accepted or rejected it³. So importers paid the duty without a break during 2026.

The new notice formally varies the duty from 30 January 2026, the date it would otherwise have ended¹. In practice, there is no gap between the old and the new duty.

How did the review reach its decision?

The TRA case page lists the main steps of the review in its public file²:

1. Notice of initiation and the British Trout Association’s application, published on 22 January 2026.
2. Questionnaires for companies, published in February and March 2026.
3. A reply from Türkiye’s Ministry of Trade, published on 1 May 2026.
4. A statement of essential facts, the TRA’s draft findings, published on 24 July 2026.
5. The final determination, published on 5 November 2026.

The TRA also published several notices extending the case timeline, in February, March and April 2026². The final notice, 2026/31, came on the same day as the final determination.

Which trout products does the duty cover?

The duty covers rainbow trout, the farmed fish known by the scientific name Oncorhynchus mykiss, from Turkey¹. It covers only smaller fish and fillets, sold in these forms:

• Live fish weighing 1.2kg or less each.
• Whole fish with heads on, fresh, chilled, frozen or smoked, gilled or gutted or not, weighing 1.2kg or less each.
• Fish with heads off, gilled or gutted or not, weighing 1kg or less each.
• Fillets weighing 400g or less each.

Larger fish and larger fillets fall outside this description. The TRA did not remove any products, because it received no evidence to support excluding any goods¹.

Which commodity codes are affected?

Importers declare the goods under six UK commodity codes, the numbers that identify a product on a customs declaration¹:

• 03 01 91 90 11
• 03 02 11 80 11
• 03 03 14 90 11
• 03 04 42 90 10
• 03 04 82 90 10
• 03 05 43 00 11

These are the same six codes listed in the interim notice of January 2026³. The same codes also appeared in a 2019 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) notice about the duty⁴. The range of goods has therefore not changed.

What duty rates apply to Turkish trout exporters?

The duty is a percentage of the net, free-at-the-frontier price, the value of the goods delivered to the UK border, before other import duty¹. The rate depends on the Turkish company that made the fish. Each company has an additional TAP code, a four-character code that goes on the customs declaration.

The notice sets these rates¹:

• 1.5% for BAFA Su Ürünleri Yavru Üretim Merkezi Sanayi Ticaret AŞ (code B965).
• 6.7% for Özpekler İnşaat Taahhüd Dayanıklı Tüketim Malları Su Ürünleri Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Şirketi (code B966).
• 8% for Ternaeben Gida ve Su Ürünleri Ithalat ve Ihracat Sanayi Ticaret AŞ (code B967).
• 6.9% for 9 companies listed in annex 1, all under code B964.
• 7.6% for 23 companies listed in annex 2, each with its own code.
• 9.5% for all other Turkish exporters, under code B999.

The TRA kept the existing rates because it was not appropriate to recalculate the duty in this review¹.

Which companies pay 6.9% and 7.6%?

Annex 1 lists the companies charged 6.9%¹. They include Akyol, Asya Söğüt, GMS, Gümüşdoga, Gümüş-Yel, Hakan Komandit Şirketi, İskele, Karaköy and Özgü.

Annex 2 lists the companies charged 7.6%, with codes from B963 to B989¹. They include Ada, Ahmet Aydeniz, Alba Lojistik, Alba Su Ürünleri, Alfam, Alima, Alka, Bağcı Balık, Çamlı Yem, Ipaş, Kemal Balıkçılık, TSM Deniz Ürünleri, Ugurlu Balık and Yaşar Dış Tic.

Two annex 2 entries show former company names. Fishark Su Ürünleri was formerly Penta Su Ürünleri, and Lezita Balik was formerly Abalıoğlu Yem-Soya ve Tekstil¹. HMRC confirmed in 2019 that the Lezita name change kept the 7.6% rate under code B968⁴.

What paperwork does a trout shipment need?

A company rate is not automatic. To claim it, the importer must give HMRC a valid commercial invoice with a signed declaration when the goods are imported¹.

The declaration must be completed, dated and signed by an official of the company issuing the invoice¹. That person must be identifiable by name and job. The text, set out in annex 3, certifies:

• the volume of goods sold for export to the UK on the invoice
• the name and address of the company that produced them
• that company’s TAP additional code
• the country of production
• that the invoice information is complete and correct

If no invoice is presented, or the declaration is missing, the residual rate of 9.5% applies¹. A missing signature can therefore raise the duty on a shipment from as low as 1.5% to 9.5%.

Who is affected by the trout duty extension?

UK importers and buyers of small Turkish trout keep paying the same duty for five more years. Their costs do not rise, but they also do not fall, as they would have if the duty had ended.

Turkish fish farms and exporters face the same rates in the UK market. A company not named in the notice pays the highest rate, 9.5%¹. Customs brokers must keep entering the right TAP code and checking the invoice declaration for each shipment.

UK trout farms, which supported the review through the British Trout Association, keep the protection the duty gives them².

What happens next for the rainbow trout duty?

The duty ends on 30 January 2031 unless it is extended again¹. Before then, the TRA will tell interested parties that the duty is due to end. It will do so in time for any party to apply for a new expiry review.

Until that date, every shipment of the covered trout from Turkey pays the duty set by notice 2026/31.

Key points on the Turkish rainbow trout duty

The table below sums up the extension.

The rates themselves are unchanged, so the main effect is time: Turkish trout keeps paying between 1.5% and 9.5% extra at the UK border until 30 January 2031¹.

Sources

1. ↩ Trade remedies notice 2026/31: countervailing duty rainbow trout from Turkey – GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-remedies-notices-countervailing-duty-on-rainbow-trout-from-turkey/trade-remedies-notice-202631-countervailing-duty-rainbow-trout-from-turkey
2. ↩ Trade Remedies Authority | ER0080 https://public-file.trade-remedies.service.gov.uk/case/er0080/
3. ↩ Trade remedies notice 2026/3: countervailing duty on certain rainbow trout originating in Turkey – GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-remedies-notices-countervailing-duty-on-rainbow-trout-from-turkey/trade-remedies-notice-20263-countervailing-duty-on-certain-rainbow-trout-originating-in-turkey
4. ↩ Imports of certain rainbow trout originating in Turkey (Anti-Dumping Duty 2310) – GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/imports-of-certain-rainbow-trout-originating-in-turkey-anti-dumping-duty-2310/imports-of-certain-rainbow-trout-originating-in-turkey-anti-dumping-duty-2310