Last November 30, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized the conference “Consumers and producers: how regulation affects the internal market”, in collaboration with Resolute Consulting.
The event was presented by Sara Sánchez, commercial delegate at the Chamber, and moderated by Ángel Rebollo, member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber and CEO of ARPA – EU Affairs & Communications, with the participation of Pablo Arias, MEP, and Keith Newman, Senior Counselor at DCI Group, as keynote speakers. Arias, who is also a member of the Committee on the Internal Market, which discusses product regulation: labeling, sustainability and how to maintain a business-friendly environment in Europe, began by reviewing the EU’s digital competitiveness in recent years. He also mentioned the relationship between this topic and the new climate regulations.

In reference to this last point, the MEP spoke of the difficulties in recent years to develop European ideas and defend European rights due to walls such as emergency situations caused by pandemics or war conflicts. Arias also outlined the expected consequences for Europe and large EU companies trading with countries outside Europe when the Green Deal regulation comes into force in 2025.

Keith Newman also spoke first of all about the consequences of this Green Deal regulation, although from the point of view of the small farmers and growers with whom the commercial agents and large companies in the EU have been trading up to now. Newman pointed out, as an example of the magnitude of this trade today, that more than 800,000 small cocoa farmers in West Africa and 400,000 small palm oil farmers in Malaysia supply raw materials to the EU market.

At the end of his speech, Newman mentioned the level of the EU’s global influence and competitiveness and shared some positive data on what has been achieved by developing countries to reduce deforestation, ensuring, in many cases, that they can comply with strict EU regulations.