Iceland Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in iceland, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Trade Agreements
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The United States does not share a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) or a free trade agreement (FTA) with Iceland, although the two parties signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in January 2009 and have held an annual Economic Partnership Dialogue since 2019 led by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs and the Ministry for Foreign Affairss Directorate for External Trade and Economic Affairs.  The United States and Iceland currently do not have a treaty granting visas for commerce and investment (E1/E2 visas for Treaty Traders and Treaty Investors).

Iceland is a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and therefore has access to the Norwegian, Swiss, and Liechtenstein markets, as well as the EU single market through the EEA Agreement.  The 1994 EEA agreement unites the EFTA and EU member states into one single market with free movement of goods, capital, services, and persons.  The agreement further stipulates tariff-free trade of industrial products that originate from countries that are part of the agreement and reduced or eliminated tariffs on processed agricultural products and seafood.  Iceland has a bilateral agreement with the EU dating back to 1972 with reduced or zero tariffs on Icelandic seafood exported to the EU.  In 2018, an agreement came into force between Iceland and the EU concerning reduced or eliminated tariffs, and increased tariff quotas on unprocessed agricultural products.  As part of this agreement, Iceland dropped tariffs of more than 340 categories of unprocessed agricultural products, and reduced tariffs of more than 20 categories.  U.S. agricultural products exported to Iceland face tariffs of up to 30 percent higher than products from the EU.

Iceland signed a trade agreement with the Peoples Republic of China in 2013 (entered into force in 2014) that offers reciprocal tariff-free treatment on a range of goods.  Iceland has an FTA with the Faroe Islands (entered into force in 2006).  Iceland signed a customs agreement with Denmark on behalf of Greenland (entered into force 1985).  The EFTA member states have collectively signed FTAs with the UK, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Georgia, Guatemala, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Macedonia, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Singapore, Serbia, South Korea, Southern African Customs Union (SACU), Tunisia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Iceland has signed Treaties with Investment Provisions (TIPs) with the following countries:  EFTA States and Indonesia EPA (signed but not in force), EFTA States and Ecuador FTA (signed but not in force), EFTA States and Philippines FTA, EFTA States and Gulf Cooperation Council FTA (signed but not in force).

Iceland has signed Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) with the following countries:  Egypt, India (terminated), Mexico, Lebanon (signed but not in force), Chile, Vietnam, Lithuania, Latvia, and China.

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