1. An instrument to facilitate exports from developing countries into the European Union
A service provided by the Directorate General of External Trade of the European Commission

2. What is the context of the Export Heldpesk ?
Background
2001 Doha “Development” Round
EC Trade and Development Agenda
Economic growth and welfare of developing countries through trade
February 2004, launch of the Export Helpdesk (EH)
Practical tool for trade facilitation
What is the context of the Export Heldpesk ?
Since 1997 the European Commission has been providing European exporters with information on how to export their products to third countries, via the Market Access Database set up by the Directorate Generate for External Trade (Market Access unit).
In the meantime, in 2001 the Doha Development Round was launched, which as its name indicates, gave a particular focus on « Development ». There was indeed recognition that previous rounds had not brought to the developing countries the benefits that have been expected and this time DCs should be able to get more tangible benefits.
A series of initiatives were therefore taken by the EC. As one concrete contribution to the Trade and Development agenda, the EC launched in 2004 a trade facilitation tool, the “Export Helpdesk”, which is a free database on the Internet to help developing countries enhance their economic growth and welfare through trade by facilitating access of exporters to European markets. By doing this, the EC gave a tangible development dimension to its trade policy.
Today a EH Team has been built. There are 4 people working on this project within DG Trade (Maryse Coutsouradis, as programme manager, Catarina De Barros Coehlo, Virginie Cossoul and Alda Rabottini) There is also a team of IT experts to support us.

3. What is the Export Helpdesk?
An internet service
Free of charge and free access
User-friendly
In 4 languages
A database covering goods and based on the product code
What is the Export Heldpesk ?
An internet service
It is free of charge and free access : anyone can access the Helpdesk via the Internet. No member fee is collected, no password is required, it is not restricted by sector or user groups as most similar portals This is an important feature as this instrument was conceived for the benefit of developing countries and therefore the objective was to ensure its use by the widest possible circle of users in developing countries.
User-friendly (searches are fast and straightforward). A User Guide and a FAQ have been posted on the website in 4 languages to facilitate the use of this tool.
It is provided in 4 languages : English, Spanish, French and Portuguese (which are also EU languages) so as to reach the largest number of people in the DCs. Only the section “Requirement and Taxes” is in English only, given the complexity to have the data complete and updated at the same time.
It is a database covering goods (only, not services) and that is based on the systematic research of the product through the product code.

4. Visitors on EH website - 2008
As one can see from the graph, about 55% of users of the Export Helpdesk come from developing countries.
Main users in 2008 were Latin America with 26% of total hits and Asia with 16% of total use. ACP countries account for 5% of users and the Euromed zone for 7%.
It is interesting to notice that in 2008, 33% of hits come from the EU, which indicates the importance of the Export Helpdesk also for EU importers.
For each region the countries using more the EH in 2007 were :
Latin America : Peru, followed by Colombia, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.
Asia : China, followed by India, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.
ACP countries : Ivory Coast, followed by Ghana, South Africa, Dominican Republic and Mauritius.
Euromed zone : Egypt, followed by Tunisia, Morocco, Israel and Algeria.
European Union : main users are Spain, Romania, the Netherlands, France and Luxembourg.
These web statistics are a very important indicator to assess the use of the Export Helpdesk worldwide, and also helps us plan better our communication and awareness-raising strategy so as to promote the EH in regions and countries, where its visibility appears to be still low. 4

5. Homepage http://exporthelp.europa.eu/
Here is a view of how the webpage of the Export Helpdesk looks like with the various sections and the buttons with the 4 linguistic versions.

6. Requirements and Taxes Section
Requirements of the European Union and of the Member States, applicable to the import of this product from third countries
Taxes (VAT and excise duties) applicable to this product in the EU Member States
The Requirements and Taxes Section provides detailed information on :
EU and Member State specific requirements for each particular product (including animal and plant health requirements (SPS), labelling, marketing, etc.),
Member State internal taxes that apply (VAT and excise).
In other words, it turns the Export Helpdesk into a « first-stop- shop » for information on exporting/importing from a developing country to the EU.

7. Import tariffs section
the duty applicable to this product for all third countries (erga omnes)
the preferential duty applicable to this particular country, subject to the provision of the appropriate customs and rules of origin documents
This Import Tariffs section allows the exporter to know how much the exportation to Europe will cost.
This section gives for a single product all applicable tariffs :
the third country duty (called erga omnes, i.e. duty applicable to countries that don’t enjoy any EU preferences)
the various preferential duties, when applicable (or example, both EPA and GSP tariffs)
When applicable, the results’ page also provide information on :
Tariff quotas
Antidumping measures (duties and reference of legislation)

8. Sections to take full advantage of the EU’s preferential trade regimes:
Customs documents required
Specific conditions as regards the origin of the product
=> in order to benefit from preferential tariff rate
By using the Customs documents section, the user can find information as to the relevant customs documents that need to be produced to qualify for preferential duty treatment under the different preferential schemes.
Likewise, the user can look at the Rules of Origin section for information as to the conditions as regards the origin of the product that need to be met for goods to qualify for advantageous tariff treatment [go to this section].
Both these sections provide information based on the various preferential agreements :
Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) : under which the EU grants unilaterally a reduced tariff or duty-free regime to all countries benefiting from this scheme,
Preferential duty regime for some of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries having initialled a full or interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) before 31 December 2007.
Preferential duty regimes under the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Customs documents for Free Trade Agreements are only online for some : Chili, Mexico, South Africa and some Mediterranean FTAs (Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza Strip, Algeria and Tunisia).
For all the other preferential agreements, we suggest the user to visit the “List of arrangements” of DG Taxation and Customs Union (there is a direct link to this website). These concern : EFTA countries, Central and Eastern European Countries, Western Balkans, other Mediterranean countries and other countries and territories

9. Trade Statistics Section
To find potential markets in the European Union
To obtain detailed statistics about trade flows
This Trade Statistics section assists the user of the EH to investigate the potential export markets for a specific product.
This section provides the current or past trade flows between a partner country (for this case Vietnam) and the whole of the EU, as well as with the Member States individually.
It also gives data about intra-Community trade.
Statistical data are available back to 2000 up to 2007.

10. The Helpdesk helps exporters find trade partners and contacts in the EU
Links Section
Finally, once the exporter is fully aware of all the export conditions, he can post an offer in the Market place or visit the Links Section.
The Market Place section provides a forum to facilitate deals between traders. It is a business-to-business platform to facilitate contacts between exporters in developing countries and EU importers, or between developing countries' exporters and importers thus facilitating South-South trade. The exporter is able to offer his/her product for sale and can also respond to any requests posted by EU importers. Offers and requests remain on line during 6 months.
in 2007, 695 offers were published and 27 requests. Most active users of this platform are : India, Bolivia, Turkey, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Uruguay.
Moving on to the Links section, the exporter/importer has access to relevant links ranging from national customs authorities to trade, professional associations, international organisations etc..

11. Useful help tools
The Export Helpdesk also provides useful help tools to help first-time users of the Export Heldpesk.
We suggest exporters/importers to read carefully to read the User Guide of this section, available in all 4 languages.
Then Frequently Asked Questions (also available in 4 languages) gives very useful information.
Last but not least, the user of the EH can use the Contact Form of the Export Helpdesk to lodge detailed request either about the use of the Export Helpdesk itself or about real life situations encountered during their commercial operations.
The Export Helpdesk Team receives about 80 questions per month via the Contact form. Most questions come from Asia (26%) and Latin America (25%), followed by Europe (20%), ACP countries (10%) and Euromed with 8%. Since August 2007, the EH team has outsourced the Contact section to the Europe Direct Contact Centre which is a specialised service of the European Commission dedicated to responding to questions by the citizens about all matters relating to the European Union. The EH Team and Europe Direct work closely together. More than 2/3 of questions are responded within 5 days.

12. On-line demonstration On-line demonstration
On-line demonstration
We will continue this presentation with an online interactive visit to show you all the information currently provided online by the Helpdesk.
Go to Internet (It is now necessary to explain how the database works by making a live visit on-line). Move from the power point to internet by clicking on
For today’s demonstration we shall take as an example an exporter from « Vietnam » wishing to export «green coffee » into the EU.
The Export Helpdesk will assist this exporter to take full advantage of the EU’s preferential trade regimes.

17. [Go to the Import Tariffs Section]
Secondly the exporter will have to know how much the exportation will cost.
To determine the applicable import tariff the exporter would have to go to the Import Tariff Section [go to section Import Tariff]
As you can see, the opening page of the Import Tariff Section is an "input form".
Step 1:The first step is to enter either the product code, but the product selected in the previous section comes back automatically
Step 2: The next step is to select the country of origin [Select Vietnam]
Step 3 : Select simulation date
Note : By default appears today’s date, but if you wish you may chose a previous year. This may be useful in the case of ACP countries for example, to compared duties applicable under Cotonou Agreement and duties applicable since 1st January 2008.
Step 3: Clicking "view" opens up a “search results" page with a list of products and their respective codes. [click "view"]

18. This is the results’ page of the Import tariffs, where we can see :
The erga omnes duty, i.e. the duty applicable to any third country not benefiting from any preferential agreement with the EU. In this case the tariff rate applicable to imports of coffee to the EU is 0%.
Would Vietnam benefit from a preferential agreement with the EU, the specific rate would be indicated (see other example for fishery products and GSP regime).

22. [Go to Rules of origin section] For information:
Preferential origin confers certain tariff benefits (entry at a reduced or zero rate of duty) on goods traded between countries which have agreed such an arrangement or where one side has granted it autonomously.
In order to have preferential origin goods must fulfil the relevant conditions laid down in the origin protocol to the agreement of whichever country is concerned or in the origin rules of the autonomous arrangements.
In effect it means that goods must either (1) be manufactured from raw materials or components which have been grown or produced in the beneficiary country or, should that not be the case, (2) at least undergo a certain amount of working or processing in the beneficiary country.  Such goods are considered to be "originating".
In all cases there is a list of the working or processing each product manufactured from non-originating materials or components must undergo in order to obtain originating status.  These rules are often referred to as "the list rules". They set out the least amount of working or processing required on non-originating materials in order for the resulting goods to obtain originating status. Further working or processing going beyond that is acceptable and will not affect the origin thus obtained.
In our example (green coffee), this section is not relevant since the import tariffs applicable to green coffee is 0% for everybody (erga omnes)

23. [Go to Requirements and Taxes section].
This section is crucial for the exporter as it will provide him/her with detailed on-line information as to the EU and Member State specific requirements for each particular product (including SPS, labelling, marketing, and more) as well as the Member State internal taxes that apply (VAT and excise). In other words, it turns the Export Helpdesk into a "one-stop shop" for information on exporting from a developing country to the EU.
As we can see, the opening page is an “input form”.
Step 1: The product code (corresponding to « coffee ») reappears automatically.
Step 2: Next we select the country of origin [select Vietnam]
Step 3: We also have to select a country of destination because we want to have Member State specific requirements. As we saw earlier that Germany was the largest importer of green coffee from Vietnam, we are going to select Germany [Select United Kingdom]
Step 4: We then click view and refine the type of product we are interested in as we did in the import tariff section and this opens up the requirements page. [perform these steps]

24. As we can see, the requirements page divides into several sections.
We can view EU and Member State specific requirements for the selected product by clicking on the options in this category (health control, labelling, organic production).
We can view the internal taxes applying in “Member State x” for this product by clicking on the internal taxes category [click on internal taxes]
We can view the general requirements for all products at EU level by clicking on the options in this category, for example, clicking on customs value declaration provides us with relevant information. [click on customs value declaration]
Finally the overview section will provide the exporter with an overview of import procedures at EU and Member State level. [click on overview of import procedures]
We know that to import foodstuffs into the EU, it is important to comply with health control requirements. Therefore in the specific requirements section, clicking on “Health control for foodstuffs on non-animal origin” will provide us with the requirements for the selected product. [click on Health control for foodstuffs on non-animal origin ]

26. CONTACT SECTION
Last but not least our Contact Section allows our users to lodge detailed questions, either about the functioning of the export helpdesk, or about real-life situations encountered by the exporters.
These questions can be submitted in all 4 EH languages.
The Export Helpdesk Team works in collaboration with the Europe Direct Contact Centre, which is a specialised service of the European Commission dedicated to responding to questions by the citizens about all matters relating to the European Union. On average, more than 2/3 of questions are responded within 5 days.

27. Our WHAT’S NEW Section …
… to subscribe to the
EXPORT HELPDESK NEWSLETTER
Please send an to :
(Please see article “the voice of delegations –Vietnam”, in newsletter # 5, December 2008)
This new feature allows to the user of the EH to consult the Newsletters of the Export Helpdesk as well as important notices.
The Newsletters are issued on a quarterly basis and inform the readers about the news regarding the EH (such as changes of the website to bring new features such as the update with new agreement), the activities of the EH team.
Recently it decided to include also news of broader trade and development context.
The newsletters are first put on line in English and translations in the 3 other EH languages will be posted on line a month later.
It is possible to subscribe to the Newsletter and receive it directly by by sending an with “Subscribe” to the address mentioned.

28. For further information…
EC Delegation in Hanoi
Internet page: