Report From The Commission To The European Council

The 2014 Trade and Investment Barriers Report (TIBR), like the previous three editions, addresses a selection of key barriers faced by European Union (EU) companies on the markets of the EU’s strategic partners, i.e. China, India, Japan, Mercosur1, Russia and the United States (US). Its main objective is to raise awareness of the main trade restrictive measures and reaffirm the importance of tackling such barriers in a focused and concerted way.

This fourth edition of the TIBR provides an account of progress achieved with regard to barriers identified in the previous editions and analyses a number of new measures that are a cause of serious concern. Although substantial headway has been made on many traderestrictive measures, some barriers still persist and the EU needs to continue addressing them forcefully with its strategic partners. A significant number of barriers are related to local content requirements which are often established by emerging countries (notably China, India and Brazil).

EU enforcement actions, of which the TIBR is a part, complement an ambitious negotiating agenda to ensure that EU industry’s insertion in global supply chains actively supports our overall strategy for jobs and growth. As we gradually emerge from the recession, it is of the utmost importance to ensure that market conditions on the export and investment markets of our strategic partners are open and fair. In the context of the EU Market Access Strategy, the Commission is actively engaged with a far larger group of trading partners to improve market access conditions for EU companies in these markets as well.