Steeds minder hindernissen voor de Europese markt (en)

The European Commission today reinforced its commitment to keeping Europe's markets open and to increasing efforts to improve openness further afield. This Communication identifies the main non tariff barriers faced by European exporters and sets out a plan to tackle them, including through deepening regulatory co-operation with key countries and regions.

Vice President Günter Verheugen i, responsible for Enterprise and Industry and his colleague, the European Commissioner for Trade, Catherine Ashton i, underlined: "In today's difficult economic climate it is more important than ever that we open up opportunities for our businesses to trade their way out of the downturn. This means tackling the costly barriers that block our exporters, in particular SMEs, ensuring that cooperation with our partners leads to real jobs and new opportunities. This is the most effective response to those arguing today to put up - rather than take down - barriers to trade".

As part of the European Commission's Lisbon package, adopted today, the Commission has taken a further step forward in giving a stronger external dimension to the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs. Today's Communication builds on the Global Europe strategy, launched at the end of 2006, which set out an ambitious agenda for opening the markets that matter most, (particularly in Asia. It also builds on the EU's renewed Market Access Strategy, in place since last year.)

The Commission reports on a number of significant trade barriers in important existing and future markets for EU exporters. It also identifies the different tools available to ensure a coherent and targeted response. The European Commission intends to strengthen regulatory cooperation with key trading partners and focus it on achieving maximum results. A priority region will be the European Neighbourhood. The Communication also identifies the main non tariff barriers in key sectors, as a starting point for further action. The instruments at our disposal include:

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  Multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations, where much of the focus is on improving business opportunities, setting out clear rules and ensuring those rules are properly applied.
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  Bilateral high level contacts and international regulatory cooperation, such as the Transatlantic Economic Council with the US (TEC) and the High Level mechanism with China provide a useful, structured forum in which to raise problems and address unnecessary barriers caused by differences in regulatory practice (see overview in annex).
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  Formal instruments to tackle specific barriers. Good examples are the WTO notification procedures for Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)) and the Agreement and for Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) barriers. These arrangements provide transparency as well as a multilateral consultation and negotiation platform.
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  The Market Access Partnership which establishes a new, stronger link between the Commission, Member States and business, and pools resources to help tackle barriers on the ground. In addition, the European Commission has stepped up cooperation with third countries on market access barriers of common concern, particularly with the US and Japan.

Finally, regulatory cooperation offers further benefits in areas such as consumer protection, environmental standards, and reducing the cost of doing business. The European Commission will also seek to maximise the use of regulatory cooperation to anticipate trade challenges and ensure mutually beneficial cooperation at an early stage.

While the European Commission is firmly committed to multilateral solutions, in many areas of regulation, bilateral or plurilateral cooperation is needed to make progress. The European Commission will focus efforts on countries and sectors where there is substantial return to be expected and where there is a reasonable prospect of successful outcome. Future cooperation will address not only economic goals, but also social and environmental aspects.

More on the Communication:

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/html/141742.htm

More on Enterprise and Enterprise:

More information

More on Market Access Strategy:

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/sectoral/mk_access/index_en.htm