Trade and Industry on SA-EU trade Market Access Workshops

6 February 2006

The EU remains South Africa’s biggest trading partner. In an effort to
further strengthen our well-established and successful trade relationship, the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Trade and Investment South Africa (TISA)
and the Delegation of the European Commission to South Africa have embarked on
a series of EU Market Access Workshops to be held at venues throughout South
Africa (Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Durban).

The interactive briefings are designed to increase the awareness of South
African exporters and other interested parties of how the EU works and of how
to improve market access for local exports.

Topics include:
* customs rules and regulations related to tariff and non-tariff requirements
(e.g. packaging, labelling),
* how to be represented in the EU so as to monitor and influence EU
institutions,
* the EU Helpdesk that will assist local exporters with specific issues and
queries.

While the EU is often criticised for being a challenging market to access,
experience has shown that difficulties are largely due to companies and
exporters having insufficient information. Jürgen Lovasz, the head of the
Political, Economic and Trade department of the European Commission (EC)
Delegation to South Africa said, “these workshops are an ideal opportunity for
current and future exporters to the EU to obtain the information they require
to get their products into the Union. We welcome the great deal of interest
shown in the promotion of SA-EU trade and trust that this initiative will help
to further underpin the growing trade co-operation between the two partners -
South Africa and the EU.”

Enquiries:

Pretoria
Pinkie
Tel: (012) 394 1894

Port Elizabeth
Tel: 041 583 4004

Cape Town
Tel: (021) 487 8600

Durban
Tel: (031) 332 7361

Issued by: Department of Trade and Industry (TISA) and Delegation of
European Commission to South Africa
6 February 2006