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  • Publication | 2021
Implementation and Enforcement of EU Trade Agreements
Global Food and Nutrition Security

This is the Commission’s first consolidated report on trade implementation and enforcement actions. It follows the appointment on 24 July2020 of the first Chief Trade Enforcement Officer (CTEO) in the Commission, to oversee and steer the effective implementation and enforcement of EU trade agreements and arrangements, with an explicit mandate to report to the European Parliament as well as to the Council and the public.

This Report, which will be published annually, is the main instrument for doing so. The shift towards an even stronger implementation and enforcement of trade commitments under the Commission of President von der Leyen stems from two main factors:

  • Firstly, following a 10-year period of intensive, successful negotiations expanding the EU’s network of preferential trade agreements, the EU now needs to increasingly focus on their full and effective implementation;
  • Secondly, the global trade policy landscape has changed very substantially in the last few years, with new challenges emerging. This includes structural imbalances, level playing field and market access issues, and the political use by EU trading partners of unjustified restrictive unilateral measures or even economic coercion, all of which the EU must address more assertively.