Negotiations between Eurasian Economic Union and Serbia on free trade zone begin

The prime minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, announced on Friday, October 28, the beginning of negotiations of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) on the establishment of zones of free trade with Israel and Serbia.

– The plan is for the first round of talks with Israel to take place before the end of the year. Negotiations with Serbia and a number of other countries are to begin as well – Medvedev said at the meeting of the Intergovernmental Council of the EEU.

This May, the supreme council of the EEU adopted a decision on starting negotiations with Serbia on the unification of the trade regime, the result of which will be the mutual free trade zone between all the EEU member-states and Serbia.

As said on the occasion, only three countries of the EEU have a free trade agreement with Serbia, namely, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, with certain stipulations differing between the agreements.

According to Rasim Ljajic, minister of trade, Serbia will send a list of products offered for export to the EEU on October 31.

– We already have a good agreement with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, which envisions the export of 99% of our goods – Ljajic said for Novosti.

– Nevertheless, the new agreement will enable us to expand the offer, but also to export to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan as well. We will offer, among other things, cars, sugar, wine, poultry, certain types of cheese, and we will see what is accepted. This is a large market, as these countries have around 185 million citizens. We haven’t used this market to the extent we could so far.

The EEU was established in 2015 on the foundation of the customs union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Armenia and Kyrgyzstan joined a bit later. This month, Vietnam officially became the first country outside the region to join the block designed to enable the free flow of goods, services, capital and work force between the member-states.

Ministarstvo turizma i omladine Republike Srbije

Dmitry Medvedev

Eurasian Economic Union

EEU

free trade zone

EEU Supreme Council

free trade with Russia

free trade with Kazakhstan

free trade with Belarus

free trade of Serbia with the Eurasian Economic Union

Ministry of Trade

Rasim Ljajic

export