Serbia and the Eurasian Economic Union: How are negotiations going?

Since May 2016, Serbia has been a candidate for the establishment of a free trade zone with the Eurasian Economic Union, consisting of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, and the second round of negotiations has been completed these days, the Danas daily reports.

Negotiations should continue in January next year. Serbia’s foreign trade with the EAES is reduced mainly to trade with Russia, with which we have had a trade agreement excluding some products from customs duties since 2000.

In the latest negotiations, the Serbian side demands exemption from customs duties for food products such as hard cheeses, poultry meat, tobacco and sugar. And although the Serbian side has been trying for several years to secure duty-free export of Fiat, Serbia’s export to EAES countries is mainly based on agricultural food products, and import is based on energy products.

The Russian Federation is ranked fourth in terms of trade partners of Serbia, since it accounts for 5.7% of Serbian export, and 7.3% of our import. When the other countries of the Union are taken into account, the figures do not change much.

Last year, the total export of Serbia to EAES countries amounted to about US$1.078 billion, while import amounted to US$1.79 billion, and the major part of the exchange was in fact with Russia. This year, in relations with this country, Serbia is again on the path of achieving export exceeding a billion dollars, as it was the case in 2013 and 2014, but with lower import than at that time.

Izvor: Danas

Foto: Beta