On the recently held Summit of Western Balkans Countries, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic started the initiative on the creation of a free trade zone between the countries.
Having in mind that the Western Balkan countries have the option of free trade already through CEFTA, we tried to find out what would be the benefit of the realization of this idea.
Nemanja Vasic, Vice President of the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH, stated that, since BiH and other Western Balkan countries already have duty-free option of trading within CEFTA, we can only talk about a higher level of trade connections here, primarily in overcoming current non-tariff barriers which represent a major issue to BH entrepreneurs.
” We already had a meeting in Belgrade with representatives of their Chamber. We concluded that the institutions that have contact with the control of food products and food, must make greater efforts to overcome the problems with the recognition of certificates,” said Vasic.
“This would eliminate the possibility for our vehicles to stand at the border for two to three days and wait for one report. It is necessary to comply with the rules in order to allow the recognition of certificates and other reports in all countries of the Western Balkans ” stated Vasic.
This would mean that transporters, due to shorter waiting at the border, instead of 10 tours might have, let’s say 15, noted Vasic one of the benefits from the stronger trade connections.
Sanja Miovcic, Director of the Foreign Investors Council, said that despite the fact that countries in the region already have similar bilateral agreements, there is no question that any initiative aimed at strengthening economic cooperation and infrastructure connection of the countries of the Western Balkans deserves attention and support.
“We believe that this proposal has great importance for business operations of the existing investors and attracting of a new one as connection of companies and business under the same conditions create the possibility of producing cheaper goods and services to citizens, which would create better competitiveness in the countries of the European Union,” said Milovic.
She added that the faster flow of goods and people, with reducing tariff barriers and simplification of procedures, would provide better conditions for exports from the region and joint appearance of companies on the third markets, which would make the West Balkan region more attractive for foreign investors and guarantee stability and security of investments.
(Source: akta.ba)
