European Commission Directorate-General for Trade

Export from EU

Trade is a major source of growth and jobs in Europe. With the Market Access Strategy, the European Commission in close cooperation with Member States and business makes sure that trade opportunities created through multilateral and bilateral negotiations are translated into real market access for European exporters.

How do we achieve this?

In 2007, a renewed Market Access Strategy was established, which consists of two instruments: Market Access Partnership and Market Access Database.

In order to identify and remove the specific obstacles that EU companies face in foreign markets, the European Commission has established a close cooperation with Member States and business. This Market Access Partnership has already delivered a number of success stories, lifting barriers in many countries. You can consult examples here.

The Partnership is made up of the following elements:

• The Market Access Advisory Committee brings together Commission, Member States and business representatives once per month in Brussels to exchange information and develop strategies on how to remove barriers. This is a sort of steering committee for the Market Access Strategy.
• The Working Groups examine trade barriers in specific sectors. They pool the technical expertise of representatives from the Commission, Member States and business and meet on an ad hoc basis in Brussels.
• The Market Access Teams organised by EU delegations in third countries gather local expertise to identify and tackle trade barriers.

The Market Access Database is an interactive, free online service with information for more than 100 countries on:

• the import tariff and internal taxes,
• the import formalities (e.g. customs procedures and requirements) with samples of all the necessary forms, and
• the most important trade barriers faced by EU exporters abroad.

The Market Access Strategy pays particular attention to the needs of SMEs who want to export to or invest in third countries.