Best of both worlds? Norway is in two minds about EU ties

A fishing boat returns from a trip to the Barents Sea to the tiny port of Sommaroya, north Norway, in this January 31, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Alister Doyle/Files

OSLO (Reuters) - It sounds like the best of both worlds: Norway sells fresh and frozen salmon worth billions of dollars to the European Union almost tariff-free, while curbing EU food imports to protect local farmers.

The fish and agriculture deals are among those that Norway, which twice rejected European Union membership in referendums in 1972 and 1994, has negotiated with the EU in order to access the bloc's 500 million consumers.