New European trade body emerges

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A new organisation to defend and promote the interests of the European travel-retail and duty-free industry is to be launched on July 1

A new organisation to defend and promote the interests of the European travel-retail and duty-free industry, to be called the European Travel Retail Council (ETRC), will be launched on July 1 this year. The move follows last year's creation of a strategic working group by the International Travel Retail Confederation (ITRC) and Tax Free World Association (TFWA), which proposed the new trade body. The new organisation will include TFWA and the national travel-retail and duty-free trade associations in Europe as members, as well as other trade organisations with an interest in duty-free and travel-retail issues.

The boards of both the ITRC and TFWA ratified the new organisation during the last week.

In a statement they said: "Both organisations recognise that the creation of the ETRC will provide a stronger, more widely supported entity, speaking with a single voice for the European trade."
 
At its annual general meeting on March 30, the ITRC unanimously re-elected Alain Falque as its chairman, although he announced that he would step down at the end of June for personal reasons.

The joint ITRC/TFWA working group will now finalise arrangements for administering the new organisation, leading to the appointment of a president and membership of the supervisory and managing boards.

The ETRC also intends to play a key role in enhancing the activities of the Duty Free World Council.