The National Board of Trade is the Swedish governmental agency dealing with foreign trade and trade policy. The Board provides the Government with analyses and recommendations. You find more information about The National Board of Trade on this web site.
Latest News
Training programmes on the go
The Swedish National Board of Trade is currently running two Training Programmes, one on Rules of Origin and one on Trade Facilitation. November 7-18, 30 participants from four different countries in the southern region of Africa are coming to Stockholm for two intense training weeks.
The Training Programmes aim to contribute to capacity development and a processes of change in developing countries. This is done by offering key persons (i.e. customs, ministries of trade as well as the private sector) training programmes in subject areas given priority in Swedish development cooperation. The participants are selected by their own organization, agency, company etc. This year’s programmes are directed toward the SACU-countries (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland).
The two different training programmes, on Rules of Origin and Trade Facilitation, will be divided in to five parts during a 12-month period. The first phase being a preparatory phase, and the second part being the two-week training in Sweden. The third part is the interim phase where the participants work with the national change projects, the fourth part is a one-week follow-up regional seminar and the fifth a finalization of the Change Projects in the home countries. The training in Sweden in November will be carried out by Swedish and international experts through general training and capacity building, however, the participants own active participation in the program is a key factor of training success.
New Report on Investment Protection for EU Investors
The EU is developing an international investment policy and will soon begin negotiations on investment protection with third countries. In view of this, the National Board of Trade has prepared a report reviewing the current protection for EU investors through the EU member states’ bilateral investment agreements (BITs).
Read more here
European Businesses Exporting to Sweden
On Thursday 26 May, the National Board of Trade and the European Commission Representation in Sweden arranged a seminar entitled European Businesses Exporting to Sweden. The seminar was addressed to EU/EEA embassies in Sweden and European trade organizations.
Read more here
New study on gender and trade
The free trade agreement between South Korea and the EU will subject the female-dominated agricultural and service sectors in Korea to competition, while at the same time it will probably favour employment in the male-dominated sectors. This is shown in a new report from the National Board of Trade.
Read more here
Climate-related border carbon adjustment measures are costly and act as barriers to trade
In some OECD countries that have introduced measures to address climate change, there is concern that this will have a negative impact on the competitiveness of their own industries. A solution that has been suggested in the debate is to use trade policy measures in the form of border carbon adjustment measures. A new study from the Swedish National Board of Trade shows that there is a risk that the administrative burden of introducing these types of measures would be heavy, and would also be a trade barrier.
Read more here
Recent Studies
New Report: Paving the Way for Unfair Competition: The Imposition of EU Anti-Dumping Duties on Ceramic Tiles from China
The report analyzes the imposition of EU anti-dumping duties on imports of ceramic tiles from China from a critical perspective. The analysis argues that the EU anti-dumping regulation must be revised with regard to several aspects if the objective is to establish efficient competition. In the absence of a reformed anti-dumping regulation, the anti-dumping measures will only contribute to unfair competition where the EU industry will be protected to the detriment of the European consumers.
Download the report (PDF)
New Report: Cross-border Public Procurement - an EU Perspective
The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the current state of the regulatory and economic development in cross-border procurement. The nature of cross-border procurement is illustrated with two examples from public services: the first from a hospital and the second from an underground system. For this purpose, the first section elaborates on the concept of cross-border procurement, outlines the international disciplines on public procurement and studies some of the existing literature on the economic significance of cross-border procurement. The second section contains our two case studies.
Download the report (PDF)
Survey of e-commerce barriers within the EU
E-commerce has expanded considerably since the end of the 1990s in line with increased access to the Internet. This expansion is however to a great extent limited to national markets within the EU. According to the European Commission, 33 percent of consumers purchase products online within the EU, but only 7 percent do this across borders. There are several reasons to the fragmentation of the EU’s online markets, such as a low level of confidence in the Internet, a low level of broadband provision, deficient interoperability, cultural differences (with regard to language, payment methods, customer behaviour patterns) and barriers of a legal nature. In this study, the Board of Trade focuses on this last category. We provide 20 examples which illustrate the type of legal barriers that e-traders face when they wish to expand their operations into other EU countries. Those range from establishment requirements in order to register local top domain names, to the differences in consumer legislations which affects e-traders’ sales offers and restrictions related to e-payment and e-signature. Our study should be seen in the light of the EU’s ambition to create a Single Digital Market, i.e. a pan-European market for online trading. The abolition of trade barriers for e-commerce is a priority of the European Commission as illustrated in its Communications on the Digital Agenda (2010) and the Single Market Act (2011).
Read the report here (PDF)
Securing High Investment Protection for EU Investors
- a Review of EU Member States’ Model BITs
Read the report here (PDF)
New report on the importance of imports
A large part of Swedish exports actually consists of imported goods and services. Swedish exports is therefore “less Swedish” than one might think. The study provides figures for the import content of Swedish exports and discuss this phenomena from several angles, including where the input goods originate from and to what extent tariffs complicates modern supply chains. It also claims that services constitute a larger share of exports than normally thought and discusses how much value Sweden actually captures from its exports.
Read the report here (PDF)
e-invoicing in cross border trade
Read the report here (PDF)
Climate-related border carbon adjustment measures are costly and act as barriers to trade
Read the report here (PDF)
Mutual recognition of AEO programmes - Supply chain security and trade facilitation – progress report fall 2010
Read the report here (PDF)