Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunication Rasim Ljajić has addressed today a letter to the Eurasian Economic Union, with Serbian proposals for a future unique free trade agreement with five members of the Eurasian Economic Union, including Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kirgizstan.

Mr Ljajić has added that the list of proposals was made after the official consultations with the delegation of the Eurasian Economic Union held in Belgrade at the end of September.

“The proposal contains our request to maintain the existing level of trade liberalisation, identical to the one we already have with Russia, which will be expanded to other countries of the Union, and we also required additional products from Serbia to be placed on the customs-free regime”, Minister has said.
Mr Ljajić has said that in the letter we also asked that the free trade regime should include poultry, certain types of cheese, sugar, cigarettes and “Fiat” cars, and then he elaborated the requirements of our side.

“Serbia annually produces about 94.000 tons of poultry, and the average export is only 5.000 tons. We need new markets and we think that the Eurasian Union could be a big chance for our producers of this type of meat”, ha has said.

When it comes to cheese, Minister has underlined that certain types of these dairy products already exist in the customs-free regime, and that out of the total production of cheese, Serbia exports to the Russian market more than a half, i.e. 53 per cent.

“Now we asked to have another seven tariff codes in the free regime, i.e. another seven types of cheese”, Mr Ljajić has added.

Speaking of the request to have sugar on the list of customs-free regime for export into the Eurasian Union, Minister has stressed that Serbian right to export the annual quota of 181.000 tons of sugar under preferential conditions to the market of the European Union will expire next year, and therefore we will have overstock to export to other markets.

“When it comes to cigarettes, we are facing the situation that we export that type of products to Russia at the customs rate of 18 per cent, while Russia exports cigarettes to our country with the customs rate of zero. It is an unfavourable clause for us, which currently exists in the Free Trade Agreement with Russia. Especially because out of our total import of cigarettes from the world, 41 per cent are cigarettes from Russia, i.e. from the multinational companies that are operating there”, Mr Ljajić has stated.

Minister has said that the customs-free contingent has been required for the “Fiat” automobiles as well, because the car industry is one of the strategic branches of the economy in Serbia, and because there is a political will in Russia and Kazakhstan to approve such an arrangement.
Mr Ljajić has expressed his expectations that the official negotiations about the single agreement on free trade between Serbia and the Eurasian Union will start this month, when the requirements of Serbian side will be taken into consideration.