Chief Trade Enforcement Officer

• Annual reports on the Commission's implementation and enforcement activities

The Chief Trade Enforcement Officer (CTEO) takes implementation and enforcement forward effectively in a number of ways:

• Strengthening implementation of the EU’s multilateral, regional and bilateral trade agreements.
• Ensuring that countries the EU has trade agreements with meet the commitments they make under them on:
  • opening their markets to EU exports and investments;
  • respecting other trade commitments that benefit EU operators;
  • workers’ rights;
  • tackling climate change, and;
  • the environment.
• Managing the Single Entry Point where EU companies, trade organisations or non-governmental organisations can submit complaints:
  • on barriers to trade in non-EU countries, and;
  • about non-EU countries not meeting the commitments they have made in trade agreements on:
    • workers’ rights;
    • tackling climate change, and;
    • the environment.

• More information on how the Single Entry Point works:
  • Single Entry Point in brief;
  • operating guidelines, and;
  • notice on the broader working approaches to enforcement and implementation work of DG Trade under the CTEO.
• Managing Trade Barrier Regulation investigations, and initiating investigations where the Commission requires more information on potential barriers to trade or the non-respect of other commitments.
• Overseeing the EU’s trade defence work. This includes supervising the implementation of all stages of trade defence investigations from assessing complaints to imposing measures or terminating investigations. Complaints against allegedly unfairly trade imports into the EU are lodged directly with the Complaints Office (which is dedicated to TDI complaints and as such distinct from the Single Entry Point).
• Coordinating dispute settlement proceedings between the EU and non-EU countries:
  • in the World Trade Organisation, and;
  • under EU trade agreements.
• Ensuring the availability of effective dispute settlement rules (through the reform of the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding, the negotiation and upkeep of bilateral dispute settlement systems and the reform of investment state dispute settlement through the establishment of a multilateral investment court).
• Ensuring the EU has an effective arsenal to enforce EU rights under international agreements (the Enforcement Regulation), to protect itself from coercive actions (the Anti-Coercion Instrument) and has the necessary tools to manage investment disputes (the Regulation on Financial Responsibility).
• Overseeing Commission initiatives to make it easier for EU firms to reap the benefits created by the EU’s trade agreements. The Access2Markets website to help small and medium-sized enterprises import and export is one example of this.
• Initiating and steering a broader discussion on how to strengthen cooperation on implementation and enforcement with Member States and stakeholders, both in the EU and abroad (see also an issues paper by DG Trade on the Implementation and enforcement of EU trade policy).

Visit the Enforcement and protection section for more information.

For general questions on the Single Entry Point: TRADE-single-entry-pointec [dot] europa [dot] eu (TRADE-single-entry-point[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)