The EU-Georgia Business Council (EUGBC), in the framework of the project supported by the European Union, organized a seminar for the Georgian exporters: What the Georgian Exporters Should Know to Access EU Market. The goal of the seminar was to raise Georgian entrepreneurs’ awareness about the standards and requirements in the trade with EU. The seminar was held on December 12, at the Auditorium of the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University.

The seminar was opened by Tamar Beruchashvili, Deputy State Minister on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Geir Westgaard, Vice President of StatoilHydro, Core Member of EUGBC, Jemal Inaishvili, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University, President of the Georgian Camber of Commerce and Industry, Core Member of EUGBC and Tamar Mikadze, Press and Information Officer, European Commission Delegation to Georgia.

Kakha Gogolashvili, Director of Georgian-European Policy and Legal Advice Centre (GEPLAC) delivered an interesting presentation on the European Economic Area. The issues of creation and development of the European single market as well as EU’s trade policy towards developing countries were discussed with the seminar participants.

In the seminar’s closing part, Alexander Khvtisiashvili, Executive Director of International Center for Trade Policy and Law of Georgia (ICTPL Georgia) spoke on EU’s Tariff policy in trade with third countries. The issues of tariff and non-tariff barriers to the trade with the EU (Import tariffs, excise, VAT, standards and other requirements) and EU export help-desk for the exporters of third countries (Concrete examples of Customs, Excise and VAT duties levied on certain categories of third country products when imported to the EU market) were brought up for discussion.

The participants of the seminar received EUGBC brochures published with the support of the EC Delegation to Georgia: Exporting to the European Union market – specific issues and Taxation of goods imported into the European Union market. The electronic version of the publication can be found on EUGBC website www.eugbc.net (page EUGBC Brochures) as well as on the EC Delegation’s website www.delgeo.ec.europa.eu