Report from the Commission – Trade and investment barriers report 2012

In 2011, the Commission presented its first Trade and Investment Barriers Report (TIBR) to the European Council. The report was issued in follow up to an undertaking in the Europe 2020 Strategy which was subsequently taken up in the Commission's Communication "Trade, Growth and World Affairs".

The aim of the report was to "focus attention [at the political level] on the common efforts needed on a selected set of market access barriers" which prevent European companies from exporting to or investing in third countries. The report aimed at raising awareness of the importance of addressing such barriers in a focused and concerted way so that European companies can reap the benefits of the global market in accordance with what has been negotiated with the EU's trading partners at the multilateral or bilateral level.

This document is the second Trade and Investment Barriers Report. It provides an account of the progress achieved on the 21 barriers identified in the first edition and also identifies a number of new barriers which merit concerted action and political prioritisation both by the Commission and Member States. As in the 2011 edition, this report focuses on market barriers in some of the EU's strategic partners, i.e. China, India, Japan, Mercosur, Russia and the US.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)070: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:070:FIN

European Commission: SWD(2012)19: Commission staff working document http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=SWD:2012:0019:FIN:EN:PDF

---