In a joint statement published on Wednesday 16 October, 43 organisations from a wide range of sectors called for an open trade policy. Representatives of the wine and spirits industry, SpiritsEurope, the automotive sector, Acea, and the organisations BusinessEurope and Eurocommerce are among the signatories. In their view, the EU should strive to open up new markets for exporters.
This involves negotiating free trade agreements at best, or more sectoral agreements at the very least, but also efforts to remove trade barriers in third countries.
In order to carry out these various priority tasks, the 43 signatories are calling for the resources of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade to be strengthened.
The associations insist that opening up new markets and reducing existing barriers requires greater cooperation with third-country partners and the deployment of trade diplomacy.
They stress that, in their view, most trade does not pose a security threat and that, therefore, “a greater balance between strategic autonomy and trade openness” is desirable.
See the joint statement: https://aeur.eu/f/dwu (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)