Directorate-General for Trade
Directorate E - Industrial trade issues. Trade relations with industrial countries. Market access. Export-related trade policy.
Market access. Trade relations with USA, Canada, EFTA, Australia and New Zealand.
Brussels, 10 December 2004
DG TRADE E3/BS/ D(2004) MA-AC 0107
MARKET ACCESS
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Subject: Meeting of the Market Access Advisory Committee
Brussels, Charlemagne building, 30 November 2004
Draft Minutes
1. Approval of the draft agenda (MA-AC 0100)
The draft agenda was approved.
2. Adoption of the draft minutes of the meeting of 30 June 2004 (MA-AC 099)
The Chairman indicated that the name of the country mentioned in Point 4 of the version of the draft agenda which had been sent to the Member States on July 1 had been changed from Latvia to Lithuania. Also, Mr Tamulaitis who was the representative of Lithuania, was added to the list of participants.
There were no comments from Member States and the draft minutes of the meeting of 30 June 2004 were adopted.
3. Market Access Database : changes due to Enlargement
The Commission presented recent changes in the Market Access Database (MADB) due to enlargement and indicated that the “Exporter’s Guide to Import Formalities” and “Applied Tariffs” sections would be offered to users in Croatia in 2005 following it being granted Candidate Country status in 2004. Croatian users should have access to these sections from the beginning of July 2005.
In response to a question from Hungary if its trade commissioners in third countries could be granted access to the MADB, the Chairman replied that such requests were assessed on a case-by-case basis and asked Hungary to submit its specific request to the Market Access unit.
Poland would like to obtain access to the MADB for its embassies in eastern countries and asked if it should address the Commission with this request. The Chairman responded positively, reiterating that while that consultations of the MADB were possible from every computer located within the EU, consultations from outside the EU territory must be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
4. Market Access Database: changes in the format
The Commission presented the new (2nd) version of the Market Access DataBase. A hard copy of the Powerpoint presentation was distributed to participants.
The envisaged modifications in the format of the MADB concern mainly the “Exporter’s Guide to Import Formalities” and “Applied Tariffs” sections. DG Trade has defined new data formats for the delivery of applied tariffs and import formalities datasets by external data providers. These new formats offer the following improvements to the Market Access Database:
- they support a higher level of data detail and standardisation,
- they enable an extensive automation of quality control,
- they facilitate a uniform presentation of the content.
The new application supports a simplified cross-section navigation and new functionalities are added, such as an automatic notification of updates to registered users.
All sections of the application will be upgraded by end-2005, starting with the Applied Tariffs and Exporter’s Guide to Import Formalities sections. During a transition period, that will be kept as short as possible, the old and new presentation styles will have to coexist.
Italy thanked the Commission for all improvements to the MADB and asked if there was a possibility to see whether a tariff in the “Applied Tariffs” section was an MFN tariff, or if it was based on a preferential basis, or it was applied on an autonomous basis. This information would allow exporters to know more about their competitor’s conditions of access to a specific market. In addition, if a tariff is based on a preferential agreement, exporters can be sure that it will not change, while if it is based on an autonomous measure, there is not such certainty. The Commission replied that neither the existing version of the MADB nor the envisaged one gives such a possibility. It would be technically possible, but it is not foreseen in the contracts with the external providers of the data. The Commission confirmed that it will examine this issue with the contractors for the future.
Poland informed that some third countries were not applying preferential treatment towards the new EU Member States due to delay in ratification of additional protocoles and asked if this could be reflected in the MADB. The Chairman expressed hopes that this would be only a very short-term problem, promised to examine it and if necessary and possible ensure that this information is included in the MADB.
5. Market Access Database : prospects for improvements
The Chairman briefly presented the ongoing evaluation process concerning the MADB and its main objective - to improve and develop the Market Access DataBase services provided to its users in Member States (all this in the framework of the Lisbon Strategy and its emphasis on strengthening the competitiveness of the EU economy). He asked Member States for assistance and support in this exercise.
In this regard, a questionnaire addressed to the Member States’ national administrations was distributed before the meeting. The deadline for duly completing and sending the questionnaire back to the Market Access unit was set for 28 January 2005.
The Chairman also asked the delegations to send a list of firms and professional associations of users or potential users of the MADB to the Market Access unit within two weeks - i.e by 16 December 2004. A questionnaire on the MADB designed for the business sector will then be sent to them.
The Chairman finally indicated that the general deadline for the whole exercise (the MADB evaluation process) is June 2005 when the next Market Access Symposium will be held. On this point, he added that the Commission was currently considering its options, especially regarding choice of venues (“Palais des Congres” where the last Symposium took place is being renovated and will remain closed until 2008).
Germany indicated that the idea of a questionnaire was excellent and asked if the Commission had any idea of the usage of the MADB by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) over the last two years. The Chairman replied that it was technically not possible to break down the available figures concerning the use of the MADB into different types of users.
Hungary also thanked the Commission for the idea of questionnaire and raised the issue of how to find the MADB users from the business sector. It asked - as all the MADB users have to be registered with the Commission – if the Commission could give Member States their list, so that they (Member States) could use it as a basis for their lists to be sent to the Commisssion. The Chairman said that this was technically impossible and suggested that Member States should ask their industry associations to help them with preparation of the lists. Italy proposed consulting Chambers of Commerce also and this idea was appreciated by the Chairman.
In response to suggestions from Slovenia and Italy that the questionnaire should also be placed on the Internet, the Chairman indicated that COM had already been envisaging to put it on the front page of the MADB to be adressed via the IPM (Interactive Policy Making) Commission system.
At the end of the meeting, Spain picked up the issue of questionnaire asking how many completed questionnaires from each country were expected. The Chairman replied that each Member State should send back one completed questionnaire for national administrations and a list of companies to which the Commission itself will send the questionnaire designed for the business sector.
Finally, the Chairman repeated his plea to Member States to be very pro-active on the questionnaire seriously and thanked them in advance for their effort and cooperation.
6. Information on the implementation of the 2004 budget (MA-AC 0104)
The Chairman noted that a table with budget implementation to end 2004 had been distributed to the participants before the meeting and described and explained various projects in more detail.
There were neither comments nor questions concerning the issue from Member States.
7. Provisional budget 2005 (MA-AC 0105)
The Chairman noted that a table with the proposed 2005 Budget had been distributed to the participants before the meeting and described and explained envisaged projects in more detail.
The provisional budget 2005 was then considered approved.
Italy asked if there was any plan to spend money on studies in 2005. The Chairman replied that there was not any study envisaged in the framework of the MADB, but that there would probably be some studies related to other aspects of trade policy.
8. Any other business
8.1. Presentation of the Expanding Exports Helpdesk for Developing Countries
First, the Chairman briefly recalled that the Expanding Exports Helpdesk (EEH) aimed at facilitating exports from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and developing countries (DCs) to the EU. He indicated that this tool was developing very quickly and that it had strong support from the new Commissioner.
Then the Commission presented the benefits offered by the EEH in more detail and stressed that it was not only a database, but also a service answering questions and providing detailed information to users. The Commission indicated that versions in other three languages – French, Spanish, Portuguese (languages most used in ACP’s apart from English) - would be available shortly. The Commission also announced launching Phase II (EU and MS specific requirements and internal taxes) by March 2005 and detailed promotional strategy for the year 2005. Finally, an envisaged study on services and investment whose results could be used for further development of the EEH was mentioned but the Chairman informed later that this study would probably not be carried out due to budgetary restrictions.
The Chairman then invited Member States to provide the Commission with all suggestions that could lead to better and more efficient promotion of the EEH, particularly in countries that do not use it enough (especially sub-Saharan countries).
The Chairman announced that the Commission was planning to evaluate the EEH (similar exercise to the one currently applied to the MADB). Member States were also informed that the EEH would create a short questionnaire to obtain comments from users. This questionnaire will be available on the website of the EEH.
Hungary asked for statistics about the EEH users from Russia and south European countries and was promised to obtain details from the Commission.
The second question from Hungary concerned the possibility of having the EEH in Russian. The Chairman agreed that several other languages apart from the four mentioned above (EN, FR, ES, PT) were largely spoken in DCs (for example Chinese). However, it has been decided to keep only the four language versions of the EEH for the time being. The possibility of translation into some other languages has not been ruled out for the future, but before taking any step in this direction, the human and financial resources dedicated to the project will have to be carefully considered. Concerning Chinese and Russian the Commission added that neither China nor Russia really need support in accessing the EU market. Regarding China, Italy and Austria fully agreed with the Commission, saying that this support will be even less necessary when the last WTO quotas on textiles and footwear disappear by the end of the year.
Poland on the other hand expressed opinion that a good reason to have the EEH in Russian was the fact that it was spoken in countries from the Central Asia region having a status of countries in transition, i.e. similar to DCs. Austria supported this point by saying that these countries were really worth considering. Latvia also expressed support for a Russian version of the EEH. The Chairman took note of the interest of several Member States in having the EEH in Russian but indicated that the issue was complicated as Russian was not a Community language and thus translation would be significantly more expensive.
Italy informed that the languages could cause discrimination for those EU Member States whose languages were not available in the EEH.
Sweden remarked that countries from sub-Saharan Africa did not use the EEH much, although one of the main original objectives of this tool was to assist these (very poor) countries and asked how the Commission was proceeding to raise the use of the EEH in these countries. The Chairman replied that the Commission’s delegations in Africa were currently assessing the situation and the Commission would also ask assistance from permanent representations of these countries in Brussels and Geneva.
Italy suggested that information on registration of geographical indications (GIs) in the EU be included in the EEH and the Commission promised to study the proposal.
Italy also pointed out that the EEH was much more user-friendly than the MADB. The Commission fully agreed and reminded the representatives of the ongoing evaluation of the MADB with the aim to improve it.
8.2. Date of the next MA-AC meeting
The Chairman announced that the exact date would be decided later and the participants would be duly informed.
2
MARKET ACCESS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
Brussels, 30 November 2004
Organisation / Name / E-mail address / Fax / TelephoneDTI, UK / Paul ELFORD / / +44 207 215 4499 / +44 207 215 4663
Ministry of Economics of Latvia / Dace KLINSONE / / 371 701 3139
Ministry of Trade and Industry of Italy / Stefano SANTACROCE / / +39 06 5993 2149 / +39 06 5993 2589
Permanent Representation of Ireland / Eugene FORDE / / 02/63 12 30 / 0496/59 17 19
Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce of Spain / Maria ZORRILLA / / +34 91 583 56 23 / +34 91 349 35 46
Permanent Representation of Greece / Georgios MEZOPOULOS / / 02/55 15 782
Permanent Representation of France / Valerie LIANG-CHAMPRENAULT / / 02/229 82 02 / 02/229 84 36
Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industry of France / Alain Mouzon / / +331 53 18 28 26 / +33 1 53 18 82 69
Permanent Representation of Lithuania / Renata RINKAUSKIENE / / 02/513 46 51 / 02/775 90 89
Ministry of Economy and Labour of Poland / Tomasz OSTASZEWICZ / / +48 22 683 57 08
Permanent Representation of Austria / Wolfgang IGLER / / 02/234 53 10 / 02/234 52 41
Ministry of Economy of Slovenia / Marija CEBULAR / / +38 61 478 36 11 / +38 61 478 36 27
Permanent Representation of Slovakia / Radovan VARGA / / 02/743 68 99 / 02/743 68 43
Ministry of Economy of Slovakia / Peter LACH / / + 421 2 4854 3116 / +421 2 4854 1706
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland / Johanna SILVANDER / / +35 89 1605 5599 / +35 89 1605 5507
Permanent Representation of Sweden / Jan Soderberg / / 02/289 5600 / 02/289 5664
Ministry of Economic Affairs of Belgium / Josef DE PROFT / / 02/230 73 42 / 02/206 58 55
Ministry of Industry and Trade of the CR / Frantisek PEER / / +420 2 24 22 93 80 / +420 2 24 06 22 56
Permanent Representation of the CR / Jaroslav KONECNY / / 02/513 71 54 / 02/213 01 23
Permanent Representation of Germany / David KLEIN / / 02/238 19 02
Permanent Representation of Estonia / Kulliki LINNAMAGI / mb / 02/227 43 51 / 02/227 43 44
Permanent Representation of Hungary / Maria SZITO /
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary / Jozsef Kovaacs / / 361 458 1921 / 361 458 3536
European Commission, DG TRADE / Matthew BALDWIN / / +32 2 29 67393 / +32 2 29 81304
European Commission, DG TRADE / Paolo GARZOTTI / / +32 2 29 67393 / +32 2 29 59488
European Commission, DG TRADE / Jean-Jacques VIALA / / +32 2 29 67393 / +32 2 29 86178
European Commission, DG TRADE / Mitsou-Marianne ENTRINGER / / +32 2 29 67393 / +32 2 29 90056
European Commission, DG TRADE / Marta MOYA DIAZ / / +32 2 29 67393 / +32 2 29 92125
European Commission, DG TRADE / Heli SIIKALUOMA / / +32 2 29 67393 / +32 2 29 95879
European Commission, DG TRADE / Blanka STUDNICKOVA / / +32 2 29 67393 / +32 2 29 54148
European Commission, DG TRADE / Graham TAYLOR / / +32 2 29 67393 / +32 2 29 54692
European Commission, DG TRADE / Pierre JACQUES / / +32 2 29 91 982
European Commission, DG TRADE / Marco ESPOSITO / / +32 2 29 67393 / +32 2 29 67232
European Commission, DG TRADE / Karin VANDEROOST-LAUNOIS / / +32 2 29 67393 / +32 2 29 66698
European Commission, DG TRADE / Beatrice PAUWELS / / +32 2 29 67393 / +32 2 29 99450
Member States : 19