we work actively to tackle what are very complex vital sanitary barriers and with this to help market the sale of european products like irish beef and lamb
the market access strategy and particularly the market access partnership launched in two thousand and seven is the centrepiece of the commission's work in that respect
the market access strategy sets up a stronger partnership between the commission member states and business to enhance the work of detecting analysing prioritising and removing barriers
the specificity of this strategy is that it is done through the right mix of various trade policy instruments
that means using multilateral and bilateral channels and complementing the more formal medium to long-term policy instruments with political contacts and with joint trade diplomacy
our efforts in relation to this market access have been stepped up considerably in recent years and we have several success stories to show we are going in the right direction
for example we managed to confine a few countries and lift the ban on eu exports of meat due to the dioxin and pcbs contamination incident in ireland in december two thousand and eight and recently we were successful in opening saudi arabia jordan and the philippines to the import of eu beef and to treat certain sps issues in a more trade-friendly manner with egypt and israel
we keep insisting on the different levels with countries such as indonesia malaysia and korea to bring some of their legislation fully in line with the requirements of the sps agreement and of the international standards of the world organisation for animal health
we have asked eu beef businesses to come forward with their specific concerns and to make suggestions on how we might tackle barriers in key markets
it has recently had very positive feedback and a presentation made by an irish business association will help us in setting priorities and continuing our work
