Virtual meeting of the IUCAB Executive Committee
The final IUCAB Executive Committee Meeting for 2021 was held on 26th November virtually again due to the ongoing global sanitary crisis. The IUCAB President, Mr. Olivier Mazoyer, welcomed the Vice Presidents Mr. Enric Enrech from Spain, Mr. David Johnson from UK, Mrs. Eeva Pakkanen from Finland, Mr. Marco Righetti from Italy, Mr. Ralf Scholz from Germany, Mr. Axel Sturmberger from Austria, the Member-at-Large, Mr. Charles Cohon from USA, Mr. Christian Rebernig, IUCAB Secretary General and the new Secretary General of the UK & Ireland Member Association as guest, Mr. Matthew Tickle. Mr. Trond Bergestuen, Professor of the Wisconsin University, USA, was invited as guest speaker to the meeting.
Mr. Rebernig gave a short overview on the ongoing evaluation of the Vertical Exemption Block Regualation and its Guidelines and further referred to the European import duties, in particular regarding imported goods from Third Countries for promotional trade purposes.
Mr. Trond Bergestuen, who conducted the European Study of Commercial Agents 2021 for IUCAB, presented the preliminary results to the Executive Committee. The objectives of the study are to explore the key variables that affect the relationship between commercial agents and their manufacturers. The findings will be used to increase the visibility of the profession and may strengthen the relationship with manufacturers. The data collection ended in October this year and the finalised study will include Austria, France, Germany, Italy and UK & Ireland as data from these countries was provided in a sufficient scope. The study will compare the European countries among themselves as well as benchmark these against the USA.
Mr. Rebenig reviewed on the SIRHA Fair which took place from 23rd to 27th September 2021 in Lyon and at which the Executive Committee Members participated. The meeting with the SIRHA Director, Mrs. Marie Odile Fondeur, was very fruitful. IUCAB and GL Events, the fair organiser, expressed their willingness for continuing the cooperation with the focus on the raising of the awareness of the profession and facilitating the get in touch between commercial agents and manufacturers. A follow up may be at the occasion of the Fair “Global Industrie” taking place in May 2022 in Paris.
The participants were informed that the process of selecting the commercial agents of the year 2022 will start soon.
The next meeting of the Executive Committee will take place on 18th March 2022, from today´s point of view in Athens, Greece, depending on the pandemic situation at that time.
Results coming soon