Over a third of the EU's companies that export goods come up against non-tariff barriers, according to a joint report from the International Trade Centre (ITC – a WTO agency) and the European Commission, which was published on Thursday 15 December.
The report is the result of a business survey carried out by ITC in 2015 and 2016 covering more than 8,000 companies (mostly small and medium-sized enterprises – SMEs) across the 28 member states.
The report sheds new light on how non-tariff measures (NTMs) applied by the EU’s main trading partners are seen through the eyes of EU exporters. It reveals that 80% of obstacles are found in partner countries, but that 20% are linked to national and EU regulations. The ITC suggests that more could be done to facilitate trade with EU partners and that the further streamlining of export formalities could help EU exports.
More precisely, EU exporters encounter difficulties in meeting technical and conformity assessment requirements related to technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) imposed by partner countries. They also have problems related to procedures for obtaining preferential and non-preferential certificates of origin, as well as with the procedures for compliance with EU or home country regulations, the ITC states.
The study nevertheless says that the regulatory obstacles encountered by EU firms do not differ much from those recorded in similar surveys conducted in developing countries where, on average, 50% of companies' report facing burdensome regulations.
In most cases, the burden is entirely or partially due to procedural obstacles (such as approval procedures or information and transparency issues) rather than to the stringency of the regulations themselves.
In short, the survey confirms the essential role of the EU’s negotiating agenda and implementation work in order to facilitate international trade through regulatory cooperation, trade facilitation, and promotion of transparency, the ICT states. The survey also confirms the importance of the Commission's and ITC’s joint support to exporters in navigating NTMs that apply across markets, including the Commission’s market access database, and the trade and investment facilitation mechanism for the Euro-Mediterranean region. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)