Impacts of EU FTAs on Ireland
67
6.3.2 Policies to help Irish firms access export markets in the FTA
countries
In terms of enterprise policies two issues were raised, both of which concern market access. The
first of these relate to policies that can alleviate the costs for Irish exporters to gain access to far-
away markets. The types of policies identified to help Irish firms access export markets in the FTA
countries include policies that can help alleviate the financial cost of entering into new markets, in-
cluding increased trade finance, market access guides, training in customs procedures and finance
of innovation projects to back market research in a partner country. Specific recommendations
mentioned include:
• Ensuring that all Irish firms have easy access to export promotion services, including firms
that are not members of state agencies, such as for example Enterprise Ireland, or Bord
Bia. Therefore, training via government agencies may not be sufficient and it was sug-
gested that the use of private-public partnerships could have an important role to play
here.
• Ensuring additional funding for training in customs procedures. While this was a general
issue raised, the cost of customs procedures was identified as being disproportionate to
SMEs, as these types of firms often do not have specialised customs departments. Ensur-
ing that there is sufficient funding available for training in customs proceedings, may thus
be especially important for the ability of SMEs to take advantage of the new FTAs.
• Ensuring funding for training in market diversification skills, including training on how to
do business in the FTA countries.
• Ensuring that sufficient funding is available for trade promotion policies, such as trade
missions, were identified as being very important. This was, for example, pointed to as be-
ing a central factor to the success of Irish exports of spirits to Canada.
• Trade promotion activities (e.g. to promote Irish products in new markets).
• Trade facilitation initiatives to reduce costs of border procedures.
• Continued expansion of the pool of indigenous exporters.
• Transport and logistics investments to help export sectors.
Enterprise Ireland has developed a package of supports to assist companies grow and diversify in-
ternational sales. These include a dedicated Exporter Development Department which works with
companies considering exporting as a platform for scaling. It offers an online ‘Export Scorecard’ to
help companies assess their export readiness. Through its business planning services, it also assists
companies diagnose their capability and capacity for exporting across 6 Export Development Pil-
lars: Planning; People and Management; Sales and Marketing; Innovation; Operations and Finance.
This business planning process helps companies assess their strengths and weaknesses and deter-
mine where a company needs to enhance its capabilities to compete in Enterprise Ireland and,
therefore, enables Enterprise Ireland to target supports accordingly.
Other services include the Enterprise Ireland Market Research Centre which provides companies
access to business intelligence and research reports across regions and sectors, and market access
guides for companies. In addition, each year the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
and Enterprise Ireland co-ordinates a comprehensive programme of trade missions, trade fairs and
knowledge events designed to give clients the opportunity to connect with existing and new custom-
ers, access decision makers, increase sales in international markets and exchange ideas.