Brussels, 19/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's annual report for 2015 on barriers to trade and investment in the EU's strategic partner markets (Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia and the US) will be presented to the European Council on 19-20 March and highlights that various obstacles continue to exist in these countries, hampering international trade and investment considerably - despite the outlook for global economic recovery.
With seven major obstacles being mentioned for Russia, it is this country that tops the list - ahead of China (six cases), India and Brazil (four cases each), Argentina and the US (three cases each).
The obstacles identified include demands for the use of local products (demands for local content) or demands for companies to be established in these countries as a condition for obtaining certain advantages.
The Commission states that discriminatory taxes and subsidies favouring domestic producers in Brazil, or a new law in Russia requiring personal data to be stored on a local server, are examples of practices that strongly distort trade. It believes that this is all the more worrying as other countries, including China, have adopted or are planning similar measures.
The Commission report also identifies a high number of sanitary and food-related barriers that persist in Brazil, China, the US and Russia, and it highlights intellectual property rights issues in China and the US. (Emmanuel Hagry)