Potential trade challenges arising from recent EU regulations

News

There is a risk that the cumulative effects of the many new regulations introduced by the European Union will have undesirable consequences for trade with and investment by countries outside the EU. This is the finding of a new report from the National Board of Trade Sweden, which also contains a number of recommendations on how this risk can be mitigated.

“Simultaneously complying with multiple complex regulations, each with different policy objectives, poses new challenges for businesses. Our analysis reveals that the cumulative regulatory burden creates ambiguous, overlapping or contradictory requirements,” says the one of the report’s authors, Heidi Lund.

In the long term, this may influence how EU is perceived as a trading partner.

“If EU regulations become too complicated, companies may choose to do business in other markets. This in turn may lead to welfare losses for the EU as a whole. It is therefore important that the EU now pays attention to this problem and ensures that these effects are mitigated.”

Read the full report, including conclusions and recommendations:
The Cumulative Effect of EU Regulations on External Trade – From free movement to more conditioned trade