Bojan Stanić, Assistant Director of the Sector for Strategic Analysis, Services and Internationalization at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, commented on U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would impose tariffs on goods from the EU. He stated that Serbia’s economy would be impacted if the U.S. imposed tariffs on the EU, as it would reduce access to the European market, which remains Serbia’s primary export destination.
Stanić added that if the tariffs imposed by the U.S. were more widespread than just on the metal industry, it would significantly harm the competitiveness of European industries in the American market. In response, Europe might implement measures to protect its competitiveness within the EU internal market, which could potentially affect the Free Trade Agreement Serbia has with the EU. Such actions could negatively impact Serbia’s economy.
He also pointed out the political risk of EU tariffs on Serbia, considering that foreign investors who monitor Serbia’s economy are also concerned with the country’s progress in EU integration, which guarantees the stability of their investments in Serbia.
“The process has slightly loosened when looking at the clusters, but there’s still stagnation in terms of these processes. Thus, Serbia remains relatively risky for investment in the long term. We are working to improve this on our end, but it’s important to observe this as a bilateral issue since the EU decides how the integration process will proceed,” Stanić explained in an interview with K1 television.
Stanić emphasized that Europe has been losing competitiveness in recent years and added that following this stagnation, Europe must either recover or face a deeper recession. “Europe is now dependent on the relations between the U.S. and China, and we are seeing contradictory statements from the American establishment. When it comes to relations with China, the tariffs were initially set at 25%, but now they are being reduced to 10%.”
He noted that the U.S. is able to develop much more effectively than Europe in this fragmented global economy because it is the only country in the world that can function and grow in complete isolation.
Regarding Trump’s statement that Europe treats America poorly and will have to face tariffs as it’s the only way to achieve fairness, Stanić described this as a political statement with a short-term goal.
He added that from a strategic perspective, both U.S. foreign and domestic policy and security rely on how the U.S. is perceived beyond its borders. He noted that America’s interest is to ensure that Europe remains closely tied to the U.S., economically dependent, but not so economically strained since the EU is one of the U.S.’s main foreign trade partners.
When asked whether U.S. sanctions against the Serbian oil company NIS would be more harmful to Serbia or Russia, Stanić replied that the sanctions would harm Serbia more. He explained that while NIS might be a small asset for Russia, it is of great importance to Serbia as the main supplier in the domestic market.
“If NIS were to be completely cut off and Russia refused to sell its stake in the company to Serbia, the question arises whether the company would collapse. In that case, the sanctions would be worse for Serbia than for Russia,” Stanić concluded, according to Tanjug.