1. Government Procurement How to export to Bulgaria and to the EU? Georgi Stoev Vice chairman BJEC/BCCI and CEO PlanEcon S&P Planecon.sp@gmail.comPlanecon.sp@gmail.com and g.stoev@bcci.bg

2. Government Procurement and Market Access There are two main areas of possibilities for commercial companies or non-profit organizations to benefit from the EU funds available in Bulgaria - grants and public procurement contracts. EU legislation and standards are important for businesses because they apply to all products and services that enter and circulate the Single European Market of the 28 Member States. Opportunities for public procurement contracts are available also through the EU External Cooperation Programmes and the Tender Electronic Daily online database.

3. Grants in Bulgaria EU grants are direct payments for the implementation of projects or activities in relation to EU policies. Foreign companies are also eligible to apply for them. EU grants in Bulgaria are available from the Structural Funds and from the European Community Programmes.

4. Tenders in Bulgaria Bulgarian and foreign companies can participate in tenders for public procurement contracts in Bulgaria. All tenders above minimum threshold are announced in Bulgarian on the site of the Public Procurement Agency (PPA). Information in English is available only for public procurement tenders above officially/legally specified thresholds on the Tender Electronic Daily (TED) website of the EU. In order to facilitate foreign businesses InvestNet is publishing information in English about selected tenders, not available on the TED website.

5. Tenders in Bulgaria The main priority of the Pubic Procurement Agency is to ensure the efficiency of the public procurement system in compliance with the principles of: publicity and transparency; free and loyal competition; equal opportunities for all candidates and brooking no discrimination.

6. Tenders in Bulgaria What is TED? TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the online version of the 'Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union', dedicated to European public procurement. How can Japanese SMEs benefit from TED? TED provides free access to business opportunities. It is updated five times a week with approximately 1500 public procurement notices from the European Union, the European Economic Area and beyond. You can browse, search and sort procurement notices by country, region, business sector and more. Information about every procurement document is published in the 24 official EU languages. All notices from the European Union's institutions are published in full in these languages.

7. Why should Japanese SMEs register on TED? To access the entire content of TED, including the archive. To personalize search profiles, according to your needs. To get e-mail alerts based on your search profiles. To personalize RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds for your web sites and RSS readers. Registration and usage of TED is absolutely free, and will remain so.

8. Harmonization of national legislation with EU Laws and Standards EU law is the legal foundation of the European Union. The rules according to which the EU funds - grants and public procurement contracts - are allocated are defined in the EU legislation that is available online.

9. What is the Export Helpdesk? A website to inform you on how to export to the EU www.exporthelp.europa.euwww.exporthelp.europa.eu A source of information on the compulsory information a business needs to reach the EU market A database on trade in goods Free access: no charge and no password In 6 languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian

10. How can it help a business? How my product should be? It provides you with the full list of requirements your product needs to fulfill to enter the EU market How much will it cost? It calculates the import tariff applying to your product and informs you if a preferential tariff applies in your specific case How to obtain a preferential tariff? It explains the preferential trade agreements applying to your product and country, along with informing you how to implement them It also explains how to prove the origin of your product With whom can I do business? It provides you with a list of EU trade contacts Who is importing/exporting? It assists your market research by providing detailed statistics on product-by-product EU trade flows

11. Who is using it worldwide?

12. Who is using it in Asia?

13. Who is using it in Europe?

14. How can it help your business? 1. Go to the Export Helpdesk at ww.exporthelp.europa.eu 2. Click on " My export " 3. Tell us what you want to export by filling in the input form In the input form, we ask you to: Enter your product code That is the 10-digits code that describes your product in the International Classification of Goods. If you do not know this code, click on "Search" and search by keyword Select a country of origin Your country Select a destination country The EU country where you want to sell your product Select a simulation date The date when you foresee your product to reach the EU borders (customs)

15. How can it help your business? 4. Click on "Search" A screen similar to the one below will appear: 5. In the Requirements tab, you will find the list of compulsory EU import requirements applying to your product 6. Clicking on each requirement, you will access to its explanation, legislation, documents needed, the contact address of the competent authority in the EU and further information such as examples, guidelines,… 7. Below you will find the VAT/excises applying to your product in the EU destination country you selected.

16. How can it help your business? 8. In the tariffs tab, you will find the import tariff applying to your product/country. The first row (Erga Omnes) indicates the tariff to pay by any exporter outside the EU. The second row indicates if you can benefit from a preferential trade arrangement that will give you a tariff preference. The "discount" tariff appears on the tariff's column. When you see "0%" it means that you do not have anything to pay to enter the EU market. 9. If quotas or antidumping measures apply to your product/country, they will appear on the third row. Click on them to see the balance of the quota

17. How can it help your business? 10. If you benefit from a preferential tariff, there will be one tab per preferential arrangement. In this tab you will find the Rule of Origin that applies to your product under this arrangement. Click on the links above for further information on the arrangement or the rules of origin characteristics (such as cumulation, tolerance, derogations, etc)

18. How can it help your business? In 10 steps you can find:  how your product should be to enter the EU market  how much you should pay  how much you do not pay because your product/country benefits from a preferential arrangement  how to prove the origin of your product to benefit from this preferential tariff

19. EU requirements When exporting to the EU, you can benefit from the huge market: 28 countries with around 500 million consumers. To understand how the EU trade system is organized, the procedures to follow and the documents to fill in, in this section you will find: EU product classification system EU import procedures Documents for customs clearance EU Customs Union Value Added Tax (VAT) Excise duties But, before reaching Europe, your goods must meet the EU requirements to protect human and animal health, the environment and consumers rights. In the Requirements section you will find and overview of the main requirements classified by sectors. You can also check the requirements applying to your product at My Export.

20. EU tariffs One significant aspect of international trade policy is the levying or lifting of tariffs. A trade tariff is a tax or duty which is placed on goods crossing political borders (or customs unions). Import tariffs are the most common, and involve a tax being assessed on products coming in from another country. To understand the EU import tariffs and related issues, in this section you may find in the basic concepts of: Binding Tariff Information, duty relief and suspensions, quotas or antidumping duties.

21. EU preferential arrangements The European Commission negotiates at the World Trade Organization on behalf of the EU. So, the Commission has signed a number of preferential trade agreements with developing countries that may affect your export to the EU. Under these agreements, the parties exchange tariff concessions or other preferential treatment. Once a preferential arrangement is in force between the EU and your country or region, this substantially improves market access for your exports to EU as it eliminates or reduces tariffs and facilitates procedures. In this section you can find an introduction to all preferential trade arrangements the EU has with developing countries

22. EU rules of origin We have listed each EU preferential arrangement that a developing country can benefit. Just click on the one applying to your case and you will find: A brief description of this agreement Its specific rules of origin Its specific proofs of origin (and templates ) Preferential trade arrangements can substantially improve market access for your exports to the EU as it will eliminate or reduce tariffs in many goods. But, to benefit from this, you will have proof that your product "originates" in your country. In this section you will find the key issues to understand the EU rules of origin for any agreement.

23. How to get further information? By contacting the EU Delegation in your country www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations By directly contacting the Export Helpdesk team

24. Market Access Database - http://madb.europa.euhttp://madb.europa.eu Is your company already based in the EU? Do you wish to export outside of the European Union? To ensure that trade opportunities are transformed into real market access, the European Commission has introduced a transparent and efficient service to businesses. The MADB is a free online service continuously updated with free key information about import conditions in 100 non EU markets. You will find information on tariffs, import information, statistics, and the main trade barriers found by EU exporters abroad.

25. Market Access Database

26. 1. Tariffs section In just few clicks you can find all the data of the countries covered by the database. For example: You wish to export electric motors to Bulgaria, in the tariffs section you will learn all the duties and taxes that you will have to pay.

27. Calculate the landed cost by inserting your product specific harmonized system code:

28. You can dial the product description keyword:

29. Press search, accept the licence terms, and you will discover how much are the costs to export your products.

30. Click on the “Tariffs” tab to have an overview of additional duties and taxes that apply to your product:

31. Use the “Related notes” tab to have specific information related to your product

32. 2. Procedures and Formalities To learn more about the procedure required for customs clearance and the documents to fill in, simply go to “Procedures and formalities”:

34. ...and all the documents you need are right there:

35. 3. Statistic section The statistic section provide a detailed overview of the product’s specific trade flows and the elements useful to carry on a market analysis at EU and country level.

36. In the Trade barriers database you can find the obstacles to trade, reported to the European Commission. You can browse by measure, by country or by sector or use the “search” form. 4. Trade Barriers

37. Assuming that you have encountered a trade barrier, what do you do next? Contact MADB through the online report export barriers form. It will provide support to identify the situation and take the appropriate actions. Thank you for your attention!