Implementation of EU Trade agreements must become top priority

EUROCHAMBRES strongly welcomes the publication of the 2020 annual Trade Implementation report by the European Commission. These reports are an essential tool to monitor the performance of our trade agreements, and in particular shed light on their usage by Europe’s SMEs. This must become a top priority for the EU and member states.

“In times of great economic uncertainty, EU trade agreements are ever more anchors of stability and guarantors of growth. However, we are not using them well enough and economic potential still lies unexploited. What we need now is a Team Europe to Implementation, bringing the benefits closer to our SMEs. We should inject more accountability and coherence through dedicated Trade Implementation Action Plans that accompany our FTAs,’” said Christoph Leitl, President of EUROCHAMBRES.

The report shows continued trade growth under our trade agreements and additionally underlines that the EU agri-food sector has also been a significant beneficiary from EU trade agreements, a fact often overlooked in the public debate, including on the future of the EU-Mercosur agreement.

“European products are in high demand around the world, and that also includes our agri-food exports, which have benefitted considerably from market openings through trade. I believe this should make us very confident that the balanced EU-Mercosur agreement will have significant positive economic benefits across sectors, at a time when this growth is critically needed”, added President Leitl.