What is it?
Forfás, together with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, created this website in order to afford interested companies the opportunity to comment on international trade issues that affect their business and that might be addressed in the context of future World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations. Openmarkets.ie could, therefore, prove valuable for companies in Ireland that trade with or invest in countries outside the EU or that are vulnerable to import competition from outside the EU.
What does it do?
In order to learn more about the background to the WTO negotiations, this website offers some useful links to Irish and international governmental and non-governmental organisations with an interest in international trade issues. Openmarkets.ie provides the opportunity for companies to comment on the international trade issues that affect their business. The site provides a wide array of information to help companies face the international challenge in the Issues for Companies section. It offers detailed information on five areas that are most likely to affect your business, depending on what industry you operate. These are Trade in Goods, Trade Facilitation, Trade in Service, Foreign Investment and Trade and Electronic Commerce.
How does it look?
The site is easy to navigate. It is attractively laid out to enable quick and easy access to various data all supported by an excellent glossary. On the minus side, however, the green font makes the content difficult to read.
By Brian Skelly
