"International Market Accessibility": H2-2020 ExportPlanning's Topics Wrap-up

The analysis of the many aspects of Market Accessibility is a key step in any international project in terms of strategic planning and related implementation. The phase of gathering market access information can therefore require a lot of professional knowledge and skills.

Based on this consideration, the Market accessibility section of this magazine tries to report some useful case studies on the topic, that connect different markets and countries and have accessibility as a leitmotif. You can find below a wrap-up of the main themes covered in the last semester.

HANDBAGS AND WINE: MORE ACCESSIBLE THANKS TO E-COMMERCE

One of our special areas of interest was the luxury handbag market in South Korea. We could see the presence of a good market opportunity, but at the same time we also reported the possibility of exploiting e-commerce and digital trade fairs (on the basis of the "French model") to expand it even more; we also mentioned how to consciously solve the problem of entry barriers.

In addition, we dealt with the theme of online sales of wine, considering tax and duty aspects such as VAT on alcoholic products and consumer protection for online transactions.

On the subject of online trade, we have also pubslished an article on the regulatory framework, regulatory and customs aspects and mentioned the issue of direct or indirect storage of products to be exported via e-commerce.

NEW TOOLS TO HELP COMPANIES EXPORT

Regarding general accessibility, we also covered the final release of the new EU Access2Market portal, which can offer information support for market accessibility to exporting companies in the EU, both from the point of view of duties and customs for exported products and administrative information on labelling, proofs of origin, entry tariffs and much more.

ACCESSIBILITY AND BREXIT, WHAT CHANGES?

Another relevant theme at the end of the year was Brexit and the changes in administration, customs, and labelling requirements, certificates and authorisations resulting from this transition.

THE EU-CHINA COMPREHENSIVE AGREEMENT ON INVESTMENT

One of the last themes covered in 2020 was the long-awaited agreement in principle on bilateral investment with China (Comprehensive Agreement on Investment - CAI), which took 7 years of negotiations and more than 35 rounds of discussions.
Although it is an agreement regarding bilateral investments, it has been received as a first step towards an eventual free-trade agreement. In terms of Market Accessibility, this agreement includes some statements about the reciprocity of market access, an improvement of competition rules between the countries involved and a first recognition of shared standards on environment and labour conditions.

What about 2021?

The year, which has just begun, is an opportunity for growth and change for the whole world, after such a difficult year as 2020 was. Our section on "Market Accessibility" has the aim to grow as an instrument to better navigate among the opportunities offered by the different markets.
We still focus on the markets which will present better opportunities for accessibility (due to new agreements and/or new regulations), and on some particular cases to pay attention to. A special focus is going to be reserved to some aspects already treated in the past months: among them, of course, an important theme is Brexit, a very current topic in constant evolution.