Serbia's Customs Duties on Imports from EU 1.8 Pct

The Serbian government's EU Integration Office stated on Jan 13, 2012 that as of January 1, Serbia entered its fourth year of implementation of the Transitional Trade Agreement with the EU.

This means a further reduction of customs duties on goods imported from this organisation.

In 2012, the average tariff on imports from the EU will be 1.8 percent, while the average tariff on imports from other countries with which Serbia does not have preferential agreements will stand at 6.2 percent.

Thus, for example, for certain industrial goods tariffs were reduced as of January this year and they are 2.5 percent for cars and 5 percent depending on the engine (for imports from other countries the tariff for new cars is 12.5 percent).

The continuation of liberalisation is in accordance with the dynamics envisaged by the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), which creates a free trade area between Serbia and the EU and enables Serbia a duty-free access to the European market of half a billion consumers.

So far, the implementation of the Transitional Trade Agreement has led to a reduction in deficit and increase in import to export ratio with the EU.

In the first ten months of 2011, import to export ratio reached the level of 61.4 percent, which is also the highest level in last 15 years.

In 2011, from January to October, exports from Serbia to the EU amounted to EUR 4.05 billion, which is a 18.8 percent growth in relation to the same period last year, and imports EUR 6.59 billion, or 14.4 percent growth compared to 2010.

As regards the structure of trade with EU countries, Serbia's biggest export partners are Italy, Germany, Romania and Slovenia, and its biggest import partners are Germany, Italy and Hungary.