Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic proposed on Wednesday a full liberalization of goods transport to the Russian Federation.
The Serbian deputy prime minister noted that transport services should mirror a rise in bilateral trade, which is mainly a result of the implementation of the free trade agreement between Russia and Serbia.
At a meeting with a delegation of Russian export and transport companies at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (PKS), Mihajlovic said that the intergovernmental committee on transport, which will meet on Thursday, will be tasked with finding a solution for problems such as delays caused by customs procedures and a limited number of licenses for transport operators.
The minister said that it is Serbia’s official stand that the goods transport market should be completely liberalized, and that future agreements should reflect the positive experiences stemming from the Russia-Serbia agreement on tariff-free exports.
Representatives of 13 Russian transport companies said that, since mid-2014, due to greater demand for Serbian goods, transport companies from Russia have shown greater interest in operating on this route.
During the meeting, the Serbian side proposed scrapping the customs procedures for goods transport to Russia so as to speed up the cross-border flow, on condition that certain customs declarations are provided.
The Russian transport companies noted that Russia’s official institutions secured 670 licenses for Serbian companies this year, and envisaged 160 for 2015.
They believe that the ideal ratio concerning the number of licenses should be fifty-fifty for Russian and Serbian transport companies.
The association of Russian transport companies has around 36,000 vehicles, and the transport market between Russia and 46 world countries is worth USD 7 billion and amounts to 33 million tons of goods.
It is expected that the volume of goods transported between Serbia and Russia will total around 380,000 tons this year, with Serbian transport companies accounting for 63 percent, Russian ones for 19 percent and firms from other countries- 18 percent of the total, said representatives of the Russian association.
Since the free trade agreement between Serbia and Russia came into force several years ago, the trade has tripled, and continues following an upward trend.
After the meeting, Mihajlovic told reporters that at the meeting of the intergovernmental committee, the Serbian side will ask for 12,000 licenses for transport companies from Serbia as the current number is not enough for realizing exports from Serbia to Russia in an adequate way.
The Russian side wants parity in the number of transport licenses, which is unacceptable for Serbia, Mihajlovic noted. “The Russian companies did not use 4,500 licenses, so if the parity relationship is accepted, Serbia will have to reduce the quantity of export goods for Russia,” Mihajlovic explained.
Ilya Yashin, president of the confederation of associations of transport companies of the Northwestern Federal District of the Russian Federation, told reporters that the Russian side is proposing the establishment of direct ties between export and transport companies aimed at exchanging information.
Yashin said that he does not expect that the disproportion in the number of licenses to Serbian and Russian transport companies would reduce in the near future, because the discrepancy is big. He underscored that the Russian side wants Serbian companies to take over a part of transport services that are now being provided by companies from other countries.
Source; SerbGov
