Serbia signed Free Trade Agreement with EFTA members

Serbia signed the Free Trade Agreement today (December 17, 2009) in Geneva with the countries of European Free Trade Association (EFTA) - Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

The Agreement, which was signed at the EFTA's ministerial conference by the Minister of Economy, Mlađan Dinkić, on behalf of the Government of Serbia, will be put in effect in April 2010, after it is ratified in the Parliament of Serbia, and it will enable duty-free export of Serbian products to the EFTA market.

- Signing of the Free Trade Agreement with EFTA countries, which have total of 13m citizens, is another step towards better positioning of Serbia in the free trade regime - said Dinkić.

Dinkić pointed out that it was big chance, not only for Serbian manufacturers and exporters, but also for attracting new foreign investments.

- The trade with EFTA region amounts to about 260m EUR at this moment, and I think that it will be significantly increased after this agreement is signed - said Dinkić.

He said that the investments that had come from the EFTA countries amounted to about 2 billion EUR and added that he expected those investments to grow in the future.