In addition to negotiating preferential trade agreements (with 76 countries today) and combating unfair practices, the European Commission acts as an ally for companies, particularly SMEs, when it comes to accessing export markets. At Cosmed’s 25th Regulatory Congress on March 27, 2025, Nicolas Dross, International Trade Advisor at the European Commission’s Representation in France, presented the tools it has put in place to this end.
For market access, the European Commission has developed two tools in particular:
• the Access2Markets platform, designed to inform companies about market access conditions;
• the Single Entry Point, which enables all EU stakeholders to report market access problems.
The Access2Markets platform
Its aim is to help companies go international.
It’s an easy-to-use online tool, with an interface available in all EU languages, totally free of charge.
It provides export and import information for every product, for every trade agreement, for over 147 export markets outside the EU and over 200 sourcing markets. It translates legal or technical language into practical information, so as to deliver all information in an easy-to-use format.
How does it work?
Simply enter the product’s customs code (a full list of goods is available to help you find it), country of origin and destination. And that’s all it takes to access a whole range of information, such as:
• customs duties,
• internal taxes,
• rules of origin (which must be respected in order to benefit from free trade agreements),
• customs procedures and product requirements,
• any trade barriers that have been reported,
• statistical information (imports and exports of …
