Why Europe, why now: the 2026 case for US manufacturers exporting to the EU
The EU has 452 million people, one customs border and, since July 1, 2026, zero EU duty on listed US industrial goods. The case for now, and the hard parts.
Marta Zielińska · Market research
21 October 2026 · 8 min read
Most small US exporters start close to home. Of the 262,281 small and medium-sized goods exporters the Census Bureau identified in 2024, about a third shipped to Canada; Germany, the first EU country on the list, came fourth by number of small exporters. For many manufacturers Europe is still the second or third market they consider, not the first.
This post makes the case for looking now, and is honest about what makes it hard.
Putting it simply: the EU is a market of about 452 million people behind one customs border, and since July 1, 2026, it charges no duty on the US industrial goods listed in a new regulation. Public buyers spend roughly 15% of GDP and publish who won their larger contracts, which shows you the local distributors already selling your category. The hard parts are real: CE marking, an EU-based responsible party, VAT, languages and stricter rules on cold email. Start with evidence and one country, not a subsidiary.
A big market behind one border
Eurostat puts the EU's population at 451,990,314 on January 1, 2026, and its GDP for 2025 at about €18.9 trillion at current prices.
US companies already sell a lot there. Census figures show $412.5 billion of US goods exports to the EU in 2025, up from $370.0 billion in 2024. The largest destinations in 2025 were the Netherlands ($93.9 billion), Germany ($82.8 billion), France ($50.6 billion), Italy ($43.1 billion) and Belgium ($36.3 billion).
Three structural facts make the EU easier than its 27 flags suggest:
- One customs border. The European Commission's customs directorate says it plainly: "The EU 27 member states form a customs union." Duties are generally paid when goods first enter, and after that goods circulate without customs duties or checks between member states.
- One product rulebook, where it applies. For products covered by EU harmonized rules (electrical equipment, machinery, toys, PPE, medical devices and others), CE marking "allows the product to be moved and marketed freely in the EU regardless of where it is manufactured," as Your Europe puts it. One conformity assessment, 27 markets.
- One currency for most of it. Bulgaria joined the euro area on January 1, 2026, the ECB confirms, so 21 of the 27 member states now use the euro.
What it is not is one commercial market. The EU has 24 official languages, and each country has its own distributors, buying habits and trade fairs. Treat it as a sequence of national launches.
What changed in 2026
| Change | Date | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| EU duty set to 0% on US goods listed in Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2026/1455 | Applies July 1, 2026 to December 31, 2029 | Lower landed cost for listed industrial goods; check your CN code |
| New EU procurement thresholds (Reg. 2025/2152) | From January 1, 2026 | €140,000 for central government supplies, €216,000 for other public buyers |
| France: all VAT-registered businesses must be able to receive e-invoices | September 1, 2026 | Your French distributor's invoicing systems are changing |
| US Commercial Service user fee schedule revised | July 22, 2026 | International Partner Search now $2,500 for every company size |
Tariffs. Regulation (EU) 2026/1455 sets the EU customs duty at 0% for the US-origin goods listed in its Annex I, implementing the EU's commitment in the August 21, 2025 Joint Statement to eliminate duties on US industrial goods. It applies from July 1, 2026 until December 31, 2029. The Commission can suspend it if the US does not implement the Joint Statement (Article 3), and separately for steel and aluminum chapters 72, 73 and 76 if US tariffs on EU steel and aluminum derivatives stay above 15% on December 31, 2026. Our post on EU zero tariffs for US industrial goods goes through the detail. Confirm your own code in TARIC with your customs broker before you quote; this post does not give duty rates for any product.
E-invoicing. France's reform took effect on September 1, 2026: all businesses must be able to receive electronic invoices, large and mid-sized companies must issue them, and small companies follow on September 1, 2027. In Germany, businesses have had to be able to receive e-invoices since January 1, 2025, according to the Federal Ministry of Finance. These rules mainly bind your distributor's domestic sales; the compliance checklist explains when they reach you.
Commercial Service fees. The Federal Register notice of June 22, 2026, set a single fee schedule from July 22, 2026. For the smallest firms, an International Partner Search went from $750 to $2,500. The service is still useful; our post on what $2,500 buys and the alternatives compares it fairly with other routes. The point here: research you can do yourself is now worth more.
The public-sector angle
Public buyers are a large share of European demand. The Commission's 2025 evaluation of the procurement directives puts procurement by EU public authorities at around €2.6 trillion a year, roughly 15% of GDP, using 2023 national-accounts data.
Above the thresholds, the result is public. Contract award notices are published on TED, the online Supplement to the EU's Official Journal, which is free to search and carries more than 3,000 procurement notices each working day. An award notice names the company that won.
Two caveats keep this honest. First, TED covers the larger contracts only. The Commission's 2023 Communication on a procurement data space estimates that procedures above the EU thresholds "account for approximately 20 % of all public procurement contracts", which means about four in five contracts, counted by number, never have to appear on TED. By value the picture differs: the 2025 evaluation says around one quarter of total procurement value is published on TED. Second, the winner in a supply category is often not a manufacturer. In our own analysis of 107,859 supply award notices, 4.1% of winners were established outside the buyer's country (methodology); local winners include both distributors and manufacturers' local subsidiaries.
That is why the notices matter to a US manufacturer with no intention of bidding: a company that keeps winning supply contracts in your category already has the buyers, logistics and tender experience you would need. We explain how to read one in what a contract award tells you about a distributor, and which categories follow this pattern in six categories where the distributor wins the public contract.
Which US manufacturers this fits best
The fit is strongest where European public and institutional buyers purchase through local dealers who deliver, install and service:
- Medical supplies and laboratory equipment
- Furniture for offices, schools and healthcare
- Workwear and PPE and fire safety and security equipment
- Cleaning and hygiene products
- Electrical installation materials
- IT hardware and peripherals
- Sports and playground equipment
The full list is on /industries. If you sell mainly through consumer retail or as a component to other manufacturers, award notices will tell you less.
The honest hard parts
CE marking is not a UL listing. If your product falls under an EU act that requires CE marking, you must assess conformity against EU rules and sign an EU declaration of conformity. A US certification does not replace it. Where no such act applies, CE marking must not be used at all.
Someone in the EU must answer for the product. For consumer products, the General Product Safety Regulation, applicable since December 13, 2024, says a product "shall not be placed on the market unless there is an economic operator established in the Union" responsible for it (Article 16). Similar rules cover many CE-marked goods (see the compliance checklist). Your distributor may take that role, but agree it in writing.
VAT and the importer of record. Whether you or your distributor imports the goods decides who pays import VAT and who needs EU registrations. Our Incoterms and VAT guide covers DAP versus DDP. Check your own case with a customs broker and a tax adviser.
Languages. The GPSR requires instructions and safety information in a language consumers can easily understand, as determined by the country where the product is sold (Article 9(7)); the checklist covers CE-marked goods. Budget for translation before the first order.
Outreach law. This is where US habits mislead most. The ePrivacy Directive requires consent for marketing email to individuals and leaves the protection of companies to each member state (Article 13(5)). The result, by our country-by-country review: a first cold email to a company needs prior consent in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy and Spain, and is allowed, with conditions such as using the company's generic address and offering an opt-out, in France, Belgium, Ireland and Sweden. The full map with the legal basis for each country is in cold B2B email in Europe, country by country. Where email is not allowed, a letter, a phone call or a trade-fair meeting is the first step.
A 90-day plan that starts with evidence
You do not need a European company to test Europe.
- Days 1–30: pick one country and build the evidence. Choose by demand for your category, not by GDP; our comparison of Germany, the Netherlands, France and Poland helps. Read the award notices for your categories and list the distributors that keep winning.
- Days 31–60: get ready to be easy to list. Confirm CE and the EU responsible party, translate your core product data, quote on a named Incoterms rule and write down the lawful contact channel for that country.
- Days 61–90: open conversations. Contact a short list with a message that names the evidence, follow up once, send samples to those who reply and meet the best two.
The distributor playbook for US manufacturers sets out each step in more detail, and distributor vs subsidiary vs direct online compares the costs of each route.
The first step is the one Cresques works on: you create a market (a country plus the CPV categories you sell) and see which companies won public contracts in that category since November 2023, with each company's award history. The Free plan covers one market map, and prices are on /pricing. Cresques does not help anyone bid for public contracts; the notices are evidence of who sells what, where.
What this means for a US manufacturer
The 2026 case is simple. The EU is a large, wealthy market behind one customs border, a new regulation removes EU duty on the listed US industrial goods until at least 2029, and public award notices show you which local companies already sell your category. Against that stand CE marking, an EU responsible party, VAT, translation and outreach rules that differ by country. None of these is a reason to stay away; all of them are reasons to start with one country, real evidence and a distributor who already wins the business.