Brussels, 10 December 2021
On the 10th of December, FEPORT participated to the EU DAG exchange with Mr Peter Sandler, Director for Enforcement, Market Access, SMEs, Legal Affairs and Technology at DG Trade, on the Annual Report on implementation and enforcement.
The Report presents the impact of the most economically significant EU trade agreements and actions put in place by the Commission to eliminate trade and investment barriers in third country markets. It contains information on activities undertaken by the Commission in partnership with Member States under the Market Access Strategy to improve market access and help SMEs to make the most of EU trade agreements and explains how the Commission works with civil society. It also reports on trade enforcement actions taken by the Commission under the dispute settlement mechanisms of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in bilateral trade agreements and under the EU’s Trade Barrier Regulation. Finally, the Report provides statistical data on trade and investment for the 37 main EU trade agreements for 2020 (goods) and 2019 (services) and covers significant developments up to the end of the second quarter of 2021.
The Report covers four priority areas in implementation and enforcement:
- Making full use of the opportunities provided by EU trade agreements (section II).
- Supporting the take-up of trade agreements by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (section III).
- Addressing barriers and finding solutions (section IV).
- Bilateral and multilateral enforcement of trade commitments: Resolving Disputes (section V).
The Report also enumerates the main results on barrier removal in 2020:
- 33 barriers were removed in 22 countries.
- European companies could export an additional € 5.4 billion thanks to barriers eliminated between 2014 and 2019.
- The Commission launched “Single Entry Point”, a dedicated complaints office to steer and support stakeholders, who want to lodge complaints on market access, TSD or GSP.
- Trade Barriers Regulation saw the initiation of 2 investigations regarding Saudi Arabia (ceramic tiles) and Mexico (tequila), both completed in 2021.
As the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement only entered into force on 1 May 2021 (provisionally applied as of 1 January), it will be covered by the 2022 edition of this Report.