Frequently asked questions
To search for a question in the frequently asked questions, you can use the search function or browse the list of terms
Yes, the Access2Markets portal includes information about the rules of origin of all EU trade agreements and of the unilaterial preferential system, the Generalised Scheme of Preferences.
First, your country has to be approved to export fishery products to the EU. See information on the list of countries and the procedure.
Second, your processing plant or factory vessel needs an approval to export to the EU. See the approved establishments list.
Third, there are specific labelling rules for fishery products.
Inspections can be done at any stage of the trade process. Please consult the product requirements section in the search results for information on inspections/checks for specific products.
Yes and no. ‘Standards’ may refer either to ‘voluntary specifications’ or ‘mandatory requirements’. For technical products, ‘standard’ implies a voluntary technical or quality specification defined by industry and other market actors.
The EU has defined so-called ‘harmonised standards’ to facilitate market access. They provide a presumption of conformity with a Directive or Regulation’s essential mandatory requirements and hence they demonstrate that products, services, or processes comply with the applicable EU legislation.
All mandatory technical standards are included in Access2Markets. You can find information on voluntary standards and other similar initiatives on the "Standards Map" site of the International Trade Centre.
Access2Markets contains the import formalities and over the border measures to fulfil in over 130 export markets. Please launch a search via the My Trade Assistant. For each of these over 130 countries you will get a tailored list of general and product-specific import requirements.
In the EU market section of Access2Markets you can find all product requirements listed by policy area. To get clarity on what rules apply to a specific product, please launch a search via the My Trade Assistant search form. You will get a tailored list of product rules for the EU markets.
For the EU market: Access2Markets covers all EU legislation your product needs to comply with for its customs clearance and/or placing it on the EU market. It also covers EU rules for organic production of agricultural products and rules for the European "Eco-label".
For non-EU markets: Access2Markets covers procedures and over the border measures for over 130 export markets. You can check which export markets are covered in My Trade Assistant.
For food of animal origin – yes, in most cases. See the list of approved establishments.
For food of non-animal origin –not necessarily. In many cases, the exporting business must simply be known to the importer and accepted as a supplier of food into the EU.
For food containing plants or plant products covered by EU plant-health rules – no, but exporters must obtain a phytosanitary certificate issued by the national authorities in their country.
Yes and no. In principle, Access2Markets covers all mandatory EU legislation that applies to products imported and/or circulating on the EU market. However, when an EU country has additional provisions in place, Access2Markets provides a reference to the basic legal acts in the documents that explain the EU requirement.
Use Contact us form and bring evidence of a market access obstacle to the attention of DG Trade. We will analyse your problem and determine an appropriate course of action.
Several means of addressing the issue are available, ranging from informal bilateral contacts to litigation in the form of WTO dispute settlement. European business has a vital role to play in this process.
The Access2Markets portal is therefore interactive, and the Commission is very much open to hear your complaints, queries and suggestions on market access issues online or by any other means.
We would like to know about any trade restrictions not yet included on the Trade barriers database. The more information you give us about a market access problem, e.g. the country, goods affected (with HS code if you have), measures already undertaken from your side, its economic impact, the more effectively we can formulate a policy aimed at resolving it.
The Statistical Office of the EU (Eurostat) collects the import figures reported by each EU country. Your country has the figures available for the goods exported from your country.
For various reasons goods might not have arrived in the EU country they were destined for, e.g. they might have been damaged on the way or the final destination could have changed.
Other reasons can be that certain EU countries have not yet submitted intermediate figures to Eurostat, the periods of reference are not the same (export figures might be from December of year N, import figures from January of year N+1) or variations in currency exchange rates. In our experience the value of imports can be 3 to 10% less than exports declared by a partner country.
No. The Access2Markets website provides the trade flows in goods between any non-EU country and the EU as a whole or each of the EU countries.
Trade flows can be requested and compared over the past five years and are expressed in value and in quantity. For all international trade flows you may consult the Trade Map of the International Trade Centre.
For monthly trade flows statistics please go to the Comext database of the Statistical Office of the European Union. Figures are available from January 1988 onwards.
In Comext, you have free access to detailed monthly statistics on trade in goods between EU countries (intra-EU trade) and between EU and non-EU countries. See also the "User support" section of Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the EU.
If your search results do not deliver trade figures in the tab "statistics" it could be that they are not available for your specific product. Rather, they are available for your product group. In this case you could go to the "statistics" section of the website and do a separate search. Browse the classification tree and check the product groups.
General information and guidance on trade in services is available here.
International trade in services typically occurs in any of these four modes of supply
- Cross border supply of services: it is the supply of a service from the territory of one country into the territory of another country.
- Consumption abroad: it is the supply of a service in the territory of one country to the consumer of another country.
- Commercial presence: it is the supply of a service by a service supplier of one country, through commercial presence, in the territory of another country.
- Presence/Movement of natural persons/professionals: it is the supply of a service by a service supplier of one country, through the presence of natural persons of a country in the territory of another country.
My Trade Assistant for Services and Investment does not cover the second mode of supply mentioned above, “consumption abroad”, as this mode of supply focusses on the consumer’s movement to third countries.
You can find more information here.
Currently, My Trade Assistant for Services and Investment is limited to Canada and the UK.
Please note that information for these two countries only covers legal services and maritime transport services. Information for accounting services is currently also available for the UK. The list of countries covered will expand gradually.
Normally, a product imported from third countries, irrespective of the origin of the components of such products, is charged with a duty as per EU Combined Nomenclature, unless such a product has been fully liberalized under a free trade agreement of the EU with the exporting country. However, the importer can avail himself of available customs procedures in the EU to avoid paying a duty on a component which is produced in the EU but processed in a third country.
The available procedure for the situation at hand is outward processing. This means that the company which has developed or purchased the software in the EU (owner of the software) needs to get an authorisation for outward processing before the software is installed in a car or part thereof. The company needs to address the competent customs authority located in the place where the software owner’s records and documentation enabling the customs authority to take a decision (main accounts for customs purposes) are kept (in one of the 27 Member States).
The details to be filled in the authorisation include the indication of the value of software (commercial value) which will then be deducted from the value of the imported car/car part upon importation. The value of the software will be its costs of production or its purchasing price. The duty will be charged on the difference in that value (the added value). Customs authorities will specify the period within which the outward processing procedure will be discharged, i.e. the time by which the importation of the final product should take place.
The EU importer has to make reference to the relevant authorisation for outward processing in the customs declaration for release for free circulation.
The product which has been produced outside the EU on the basis of an engineering project or any kind of design (e.g. clothes designed in the EU but produced in a third country) developed in the EU, is not charged with a duty for the value of services rendered in the EU. This is upon condition that such a design, engineering or development project was necessary for the production of the product. The duty is charged on the basis of the customs value of the imported product, excluding the value of the service produced in the EU. If such services were rendered outside the EU, the customs value of the goods would have to include the value of those services (See article 71 (1) (b) (iv) of the Union Customs Code).
For further details on the calculation of the customs value in such cases, please contact your customs office or see the European Customs Valuation Compendium.
Services or intangible goods such as software are imported into the EU duty free. However, if software developed in the EU is incorporated into a good in a third country e.g. a car in Japan and that car is imported into the EU, the importer could avoid paying duties on the value of the EU software if he made use of the outward processing procedure. See more here.
My Trade Assistant for Services and Investment is the most recent expansion of Access2Markets. It offers free information to EU companies on the conditions they need to meet when exporting services to markets outside the EU.
You can find information on the requirements an EU company should fulfil in order to export services and access markets outside the EU, in three modes of supply, as well as information on the authorities responsible in third countries. The information is currently available for legal services and maritime services in Canada and in the UK as well as for accounting services in the UK. The services sectors and countries covered will be expanded gradually.
The information available on my Trade Assistant for Services and Investment is not legally binding.
The information available is updated once a year.
“Market access condition” refers to the requirements that a country applies in order to allow services suppliers from another country to supply services in its territory.
My Trade Assistant for Services and Investment provides information, per mode of supply, on the following market access conditions.
- Cross border supply of services
- local presence requirements;
- licensing and authorisation requirements;
- registration requirements;
- qualification requirements;
- quantitative restrictions;
- taxation and other financial measures;
- data transfer restrictions and
- data localisation requirements
- Commercial presence
- licensing and authorisation requirements;
- foreign equity caps;
- nationality requirements;
- senior management and boards of directors;
- quantitative restrictions;
- taxation and other financial measures;
- data transfer restrictions and data localisation requirements;
- technology transfer and transfer of data requirements;
- access to land;
- local content and export requirements;
- restrictions on the scope of activities of certain entities
- Presence/Movement of natural persons/professionals
- residency requirements;
- nationality requirements;
- work permit requirements;
- labour market tests;
- professional qualifications requirements
When exporting services to countries that are not covered by My Trade Assistant for Services, you can contact the national authority responsible in your Member State or the relevant chamber of commerce or look for information on the website of the competent authority of the country you want to export to.