Brussels, 26/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Eurochambres) has requested the European Commission to take measures for improving exports to markets that have a reputation for being difficult, particularly that of China, based on the export support campaign model of "Gateway to Japan". Christophe Leitl stressed in a press statement that it was imperative to make sales to third countries more dynamic by providing exporters with incentives to use work instruments that already exist and which have proved to be high performance within the internal market: the on-line market access data base on the European Commission site: (http//mkaccdb.eu.int). According to the President of Eurochambres, collated data should also cover information on external markets in order to facilitate sales to third countries by for example creating "a network of networks". While affirming that these are "crucial", Eurochambres acknowledges that there are some difficulties because they require additional human resources and because market implantation could take time.
DG Trade at the European Commission has been involved in a partnership this year with Eurochambres as part of the EU's strategy for market access. One of the objects of the association will be to make the market access data base more democratic by making it available to the public for free on the internet (only in English). Last year, the association met around 10,000 participants during the 200 events organised by the chambers of commerce in the fifteen Member States. 80% of the participants did not at that stage know about the data base.