In early November, Paul Skehan joined the last business trip of 2016 organised by DG AGRI in Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia to promote the quality of the European food and beverages to ASEAN markets. spiritsEUROPE accompanied the Commissioner on all three of his trips during 2016.
This initiative offers great opportunities to push the benefits of trade. It allows us not only to “Promote the Taste of Europe” but also to meet with EU and national embassies, national authorities and others to try to address market access issues for spirits products. This initiative is in line with what we have called for: more COM/EEAS resources to support European trade ambitions. We already count on the growing role of EU Delegations, whom we meet during these business trips. By their presence in markets and contacts at local level with the relevant institutions, the Delegations are increasingly important to EU exporters. They are the first contact point for us abroad and can react quickly when new barriers emerge.
We hope to join Commissioner Hogan again next year in Canada, although probably not in Iran …
