The factory Fiat Automobiles Serbia expects the approval for exporting a contingent of its vehicles to the Russian market. The Russian automobile manufacturers look for that approval with similar impatience, since at issue is a reciprocal arrangement under good conditions.
The first batch of Fiat’s vehicles manufactured in Kragujevac may be shipped this month already, or in early June, Minister of Economy Zeljko Sertic said recently. He did not wish to speculate on the number of cars in the first contingent, and stressed the importance of the political dimension of such a decision. Russia is ready and has done all necessary procedures, but it also needs to harmonize the entire deal with other member-states of the Eurasian Economic Union – Belorussia and Kazakhstan – because the decision cannot be passed unilaterally by Russia. It has been recently confirmed by Yelena Yashkina, the assistant of the Russian Minister for Economic Development. According to her, Moscow will support the request of Serbia to enable the duty-free import of the Fiat cars, but in line with the mutual quota. The suggestion has been passed to the Eurasian Economic Commission for analysis.
The factory in Kragujevac is eagerly awaiting for the decision on the duty-free export of their model Fiat 500L to the Russian market, but they are not alone in that attitude. Namely, the importers and distributors of the Russian vehicles expect the same decision, i.e. the reduction of customs taxes by 15%, which means the lower prices for the Serbian buyers. The Russian vehicles have been imported to Serbia for decades, their Moskvitch and Lada are well remembered, while the GAZ brand is still very active in the Serbian market. This company produced their first model of the light commercial vehicles, “GAZelle”, back in 1994, and currently there is around 1.5 million of those being used around the world. It is expected that they could be a very competitive players in the Serbian market, with the price of 10 thousand euro.
Source; Balkans
