Brussels Watch: EU Market Access Strategy Symposium Planned

A major symposium is being organized by the European Commission onNovember 4 entitled "The European Union Market Access Strategy - one year on" as a follow-up to the launch of its strategy a year ago, aimed at adjusting EU trade policy to the rapid changes taking place in the world economy and to the needs of European business.

The Commission believes that during the course of last year, its market access initiative started to prove its worth: enquiries and comments were received from thousands of businesses across the EU, and numerous new trade barriers were identified and dealt with by the Commission.

In 1997 alone, the EU will have brought over 40 cases before the World Trade Organization, and any other cases have been dealt with in bilateral negotiations.