- Restraint with regard to permitted business with sanctioned markets
- Foreign Ministry intends to offer more services for companies
- More and more companies becoming involved outside the traditional Austrian export markets
Sanctions imposed by the UN and EU are still a significant burden for the Austrian export industry: At a round-table discussion between Foreign Ministry representatives and Austrian companies, which was organised by the Foreign Ministry together with the excellence platform Leitbetriebe Austria with the title “Türöffner zum Weltmarkt” (Opening doors to the world market), the participants complained of lasting reductions in their business volume.
Some of this is not due to sanctions in the narrow sense, explained envoy Lucia Kronsteiner from the sanctions unit of the Foreign Ministry. “We often observe ‚over-compliance‘, i.e. companies that over-comply with the provisions of the sanctions regime and are unnecessarily restrained with regard to permitted business. Sanctions are often not nearly as extensive as is generally believed and those who are well informed can also do business in sanctioned markets.”
