Eurasia Press & News
Serbian and Russian officials will today sign a special protocol to expand their Free Trade Agreement, the Serbian Government announces.
Serbia’s Ministry of Economy declared earlier that this protocol relates to the export of medicines, meat, confectionery products and wine. Co-presidents of the Russian-Serbian Economy Cooperation Committee, Ivica Dacic and Sergei Sojgu will sign the protocol, and its realisation should take effect immediately.
The protocol also includes duties and taxes on refrigerators, dish-washers, washing machines, carpets, wooden office furniture, soaps, sleeping bags and bedding. It does not however include vehicles, sugar, cigarettes, fizzy wine, undried ethyl-alcohol, cotton products, or TV and PC screens.
Serbia signed the original Free Trade Agreement with Russia in 2000. The Ministry of Economy announced that, so far, 95 per cent of the agreement was achieved, but its effects were not entirely satisfactory; this was why both countries decided in September 2008 to expand the agreement.
Ivica Dacic said that, immediately after signing the protocol, Serbia and Russia will open negotiations on decreasing duty and taxes on the import of vehicles. Dacic added that does not mean unlimited imports, but that Serbia and Russia will negotiate the number of vehicles that may be imported annually.
