EU promotes trade at Global Expo

| Thursday November 18, 2010 00:00

The Delegation of the European Union to Botswana and SADC in partnership with the Centre for the Development of Enterprise(CDE) and the Swedish Trade Council will be exhibiting at the Global Expo.

On the opening day, the EU, CDE and Swedish Trade Council will host a short presentation to inform Batswana and other producers on how to export to the EU including Information Communication Technology (ICTs) and training opportunities in Europe in the areas of education.

Officials from the EU Delegation, CDE and Swedish Trade Council will make short presentations after which visitors will have an opportunity to ask questions on a range of issues. The European Union (EU) is the world's largest single market. Besides, Botswana businesses enjoy duty and quota free access to the EU market and should use these benefits.

To help Botswana producers benefit, the EU provides an information tool where Batswana exporters can obtain the necessary information to crack European markets. The Export Helpdesk is a free internet site that gives detailed information on how to export to Europe, from product-specific duties to import tariffs and trade statistics as well as useful links to business associations.

The EU is SADC's largest trading partner accounting for 58.9 billion Euros in total trade flows with the EU in 2008.

Four member countries; Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique signed the Interim Economic Partnership Agreement in June 2009, with the EU to further increase their trade flows taking advantage of the quota and duty free access provided by the EPA. In 2008, trade flows between the EU and the four were almost EUR 2.1 billion. All four countries enjoyed individual trade surpluses with the EU - the combined surplus standing at around EUR 1 billion.

In 2008 the main exports to the EU for the four countries were aluminium, diamonds, sugar, beef and fish. Their main imports from the EU were mechanical machinery, electrical machinery, fertilisers and vehicles.

The SADC region as a whole has been a net beneficiary of trade with the EU up to now and the EPA will allow the region to improve competitiveness, diversify its exports, and build strong regional cooperation networks in support of those that currently exist or are being developed. All of this goes hand in hand with EU financial support through the European Development Fund (EDF) and Aid for Trade facilities.