The President of Serbia was right: the export of Serbian products to China has increased 50 times in the last ten years, while the import has barely tripled. If you don’t look at the specific numbers, it seems that we have achieved a boom in the Chinese market.
But, in 2010, we exported goods for a symbolic seven million dollars and imported from that country a value of almost 1.2 billion. Last year, exports were around 350 million, and imports exceeded 3.3 billion.
And the structure of the contingents we sold in the Far East in the last decade is typical of an underdeveloped country – almost a third are made of various forms of wood, mostly beech, rough or raw, 26 percent is cathode copper, about 17 percent are various machines and parts while agricultural products, whose share is becoming more significant, make up two percent of the total value of exports.
From China, however, we import mainly finished products and high technology – mobile phones, computers, laptops and other equipment, aluminum from raw materials, while in the structure a more important place, about 14 percent, is occupied by goods that are classified as unclassified.
At the same time, the trade deficit with China has grown in the last decade, so that in 2010 it amounted to 1.16 billion, and last year it reached almost three billion dollars.
Serbia’s subordinate position is further aggravated by large loans taken from that country to build infrastructure, with it almost being assumed that their companies would be the main contractors without a tender and thus reap profits from the business they lent.
Professor of the Faculty of Economics Ljubodrag Savic says that the statements of politicians about 50 times increased exports can lead to the conclusion that a huge penetration of that market was achieved, and we should keep in mind what the starting point was and that the amount of goods is symbolic in relation to what we export to the European Union.
– But, we should be objective and say that even those more than 300 million placed in China are not insignificant exports and should not be underestimated because much more developed economies, such as the American or Western European ones, do not fare better in that exchange. Until the economic crisis, for example, Germany was the world’s largest exporter, with 1.350 billion dollars, and now China has overtaken it. In the last decade, it has been the absolute champion in terms of export growth. It imports only raw materials, raw materials, energy and top technology from the world, everything else is more or less self-produced, they have really become a world workshop – says Savic and adds that this is confirmed by customs duties introduced a few years ago in an attempt to curb the penetration of their goods. to the market of, say, America, although such a measure is unacceptable from the point of view of the World Trade Organization.
According to Dragana Mitrovic, professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences and director of the Institute for Asian Studies, that market is closed both for Serbia and for the format of countries that enter the “17 plus”.
– Dissatisfaction and demands of those 17 countries for China to be more open have been silent for a long time, especially since it is a member of the WTO and is obliged to respect those standards. She asked for the status of a market economy to be recognized, and the sooner she would have to open up, especially when it comes to us, because we have a lot of their loans and it should enable us to settle the trade deficit curve – says Mitrovic.
He emphasizes that we ourselves, as debtors at the bilateral level, would have to demand better passability of our goods on their market. She reminds that she proposed long ago more concrete measures that the country applied with some other trade partners, such as Ukraine, where it financed the production it needs. It was a mutual benefit, because China has a problem with standards, food safety.
– They have committed to opening the market within the “17 plus 1” format, but they are doing it very slowly, years pass until they sign, establish agreements and start implementing them, so we cannot be satisfied with the speed or scope with which the Chinese side fulfills its promises. Of course, we expect him to show far greater interest and not only to be our creditor and to realize his projects and employ his companies and technology on our territory, but to be a far greater investor and importer of our products – explains Professor Mitrović and points out that with economic models Cooperation should not interfere with the importance that China has for our strategic goals and political priorities, because it does so out of its own interests and thus protects the principles that are important to it, Danas reports.
