Commission launches Access2Markets portal to support trade by small businesses

The European Commission has today launched the Access2Markets online portal to help small and medium-sized firms trade beyond the EU’s borders. The new portal responds to requests from stakeholders to better explain trade agreements and help companies ensure their products are eligible for duty discounts. It will serve both companies that already trade internationally and those only starting to explore opportunities in foreign markets. The new portal was presented today at a high-level virtual, event ‘The road to recovery – empowering small businesses to trade internationally’, hosted by Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis and attended by some 600 representatives of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said: “We need to help our companies, in particular our SMEs, to derive maximum benefit from our trade agreements. This is why we have created this new portal to help our smaller companies navigate the world of international trade. This one-stop-shop will help European firms to make the most of the EU’s network of trade agreements and get the best access to the markets, products and inputs they need to grow and to stay competitive.” The portal allows companies to look up in just a few clicks tariffs, taxes, rules of origin, product requirements, customs procedures, trade barriers and trade flow statistics related to a specific product they want to import or export. For more information, see the full announcement available online.