Emergency session of CEFTA Joint Committee on July 22nd in Belgrade

Serbia has called an emergency session of the CEFTA Joint Committee for July 22nd to request the removal of the trade barriers imposed by the Macedonian government on wheat and flour, Assistant to the Serbian Trade Minister Bojana Jovanovic said Saturday (6 July 2013).

- This illegal practice has been going on for four years now, always in the time of harvest and is always abandoned in November, which we can not tolerate any more as it is an obvious breach of the CEFTA Agreement - said Bojana Todorovic.

The Macedonian government has asked importers to purchase two kilograms of domestic wheat per each kilogram they import, said Zdravko Sajatovic, director of Zitovojvodine, one of biggest Serbian wheat exporters.

- We have already reached an agreement with other members, and we are confident that we can put an end to this practice once and for all at a Joint Committee session that will take place in Belgrade in about 10 days - Todorovic stressed.

The Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) is a free trade organization composed of 14 member countries, including Serbia and Macedonia.

In the first six months of the 2013 Serbia achieved a trade surplus of 588.3 million U.S. dollars with CEFTA states, mainly by exporting agricultural and food products, the Serbian National Statistics Bureau reported.

The EU and CEFTA are the two most important trade blocs for Serbia, accounting for two thirds of its foreign trade.