The EU's Trade Department meets business owners, members of civil society and policy makers across the globe. Each and every meeting gives us new insights and new ideas and helps shape EU trade policy.
The new version of the Rules of Origin Self-Assessment tool is now available on Access2Markets for most EU free trade agreements. ROSA has been completely revamped with a new interface and simple questions that will help you through the process of assessing the origin of your product in a particular Trade Agreement in just a few clicks. This tool makes it very easy for businesses to check whether their products can benefit from preferential tariff treatment in the various agreements. Moreover, thanks to machine translation, all EU FTAs are in the process of being translated into all EU languages (from today, the EU-Canada FTA (CETA), EU-UK TCA, EU-Japan FTA as well as the Generalised Scheme of Preferences are translated in all EU languages.)
The objective is to foster EU-US supply chains in critical raw materials needed in the production of electric vehicle batteries. In 2022 alone, the EU exported €8.3 billion worth of critical raw materials relevant to this industry.
Check on the Central America page on DG Trade website: you will find facts, figures and latest developments
This new tool will enable the EU to better defend its interests and those of its Member States on the global stage. Watch the video for more insights!
Delivering a net-zero world is EU Green Week 2023 theme: find out more about it!
The fifteenth Trade Policy Review of the EU will be taking place at the WTO in Geneva on 5 and 7 June 2023. An open and in-depth examination of WTO Members’ trade policies and practices by their peers, this exercise is crucial to the WTO’s monitoring and transparency functions. Trade Director-General Sabine Weyand will address the WTO Membership at the start of deliberations. Watch this space.
At the TPE Annual Conference on Wednesday, national and local Trade Promotion Organisations, Agri-Food Promotion Agencies and representatives of the European Commission were involved in a fruitful discussion about the challenges and opportunities faced by exporting SMEs
The EU-Mercosur Agreement could make it easier for this Finnish company to do business with Brazil, making administrative procedures easier and cheaper and giving Brazil access to more up-to-date technology.
We have five economic partnership agreements with South, West, East and Central African countries, four association agreements with North African countries and one sustainable investment facilitation agreement with Angola. Check out trade data with top 10 African partners on our LinkedIn page!
The EU is developing policies to address climate change with the least impact on trade impact possible. Discover more on EU Trade LinkedIn page!
The EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement eliminated most Japanese duties on foodstuffs from the EU, helping this Lithuanian firm specialising in lyophilised snacks to be more competitive in Japan. Check the full story!
The proposal renews the current suspension of import duties on Moldovan exports to the EU for another year. It also extends that suspension to all remaining tariffs and tariff rate quotas on Moldovan imports. Go check more in detail how EU is supporting Moldova's economy!
The EU is Australia's third-biggest trade partner, after China and Japan, but before the US. Last year, total trade in goods between the EU and Australia amounted to 55 billion euro, up 7 billion compared to five years ago. The EU and Australia are now negotiating a comprehensive and ambitious trade agreement. Would you like to know more about it?
Among other issues, the two sides discussed the importance of EU-China trade. EVP Dombrovskis flagged the need to rebalance the trade and investment relationship and raised concerns regarding the level playing field and specific market access concerns. The EU side raised Russia’s war in Ukraine, and that the sanctions cannot be circumvented. EVP Dombrovskis also pointed to the unacceptable remarks of H.E. Lu Shaye, China’s Ambassador to Paris, who questioned the status of independent countries. Minister Wang confirmed that China’s official position has not changed.
The extension of measures follows an investigation which showed that EU anti-dumping duties on imports of SSHR from Indonesia were being circumvented by imports sent for final completion to Türkiye and then shipped to the EU. SSHRs are a primary material in the construction industry, with the EU market worth € 2.4 billion. The extension of anti-dumping measures to SSHR from Türkiye is necessary in order to enforce the trade defence measures in place since October 2020 on imports of SSHR from Indonesia, China and Taiwan.
An expiry review investigation showed that injurious dumping would resume if measures were allowed to lapse. The renewal follows the extension of measures, on 3 March 2023, to fittings from Malaysia, after an anti-circumvention investigation had found that Chinese producers were using assembly operations there to evade measures applicable to them. Both sets of measures protect EU producers of stainless steel fittings from unfair trading practices wherever these may come from, thereby securing over 500 EU jobs. The renewal of measures on imports from China and Taiwan is necessary to continue to ensure fair competition between imported and EU-produced fittings, while the extension of measures to Malaysia is necessary to ensure the efficacy of these measures against efforts to circumvent them.
Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis and Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi co-chaired the fourth meeting of the Joint Committee under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
On the 7th and 8th of March, the Chief Negotiators of the EU-Mercosur Agreement met in Buenos Aires. The EU delegation was chaired by its Chief Negotiators of the European Union External Action Service and Directorate-General for International Trade. The Mercosur delegation consisted of the four National Coordinators of the bloc and was chaired by the Argentine Republic.
"It requires day-to-day attention and commitment to ensure that women and girls can be free from violence; that women as well as men can have both a family and a career; that women earn the same as their male colleagues, because they deserve it; that they can reach the very top levels, because they are qualified. We have a duty to set an example to society and the economy of what a world of fair chances looks like. And this duty counts every day, not just on International Women's Day." Ursula von der Leyen
