The Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Tatjana Matic, says that the agreement with Great Britain will be signed, as announced by their Minister of Tourism.
She adds that the goal of the agreement with Great Britain, which includes trade relations, is to keep all the benefits that existed even before the country’s exit from the European Union.
When asked why the signing of that agreement is late, the Minister reminded RTS that the negotiations between Britain and the EU lasted a long time.
– They are simply such a negotiator, they set the conditions in a dominant way, they are standard agreements that they wanted to sign with everyone, we wanted to separate the trade and cooperation part, and they wanted a comprehensive agreement. We have found a compromise which is always the best solution – Matic notes.
The Minister pointed out that Serbia, after Britain left the EU, found itself in a position where other norms began to apply and a different administration was applied.
That, as she says, did not suit Serbia, because through the trade part of the Stabilization and Association Agreement in the last ten years, it had extremely favorable conditions for the export and import of goods.
– Our goal through the new agreement was to keep all the valid benefits that existed and to realize the existing preferences through the bilateral agreement and to continue the scope of trade and cooperation that was for ten years and led to Serbia it has a large surplus with Britain – says Matic.
He says that the most dominant sector is trade in services, and that Britain is Serbia’s third partner in the world (after the United States and Germany) in that area.
– First of all, the IT sector, telecommunications, financial services, that is what is dominant in economic relations when it comes to trade in services – said Matic.
The Minister says that the export of frozen fruits and vegetables from Serbia is dominant.
– First of all, raspberries without sugar, jams, mostly food products, organic and with a designation of origin, that is highly valued – states Matic.
When it comes to the import of goods from Britain to Serbia, the Minister says that the dominant import is drugs, cars, raw materials for the production of tires.
– Britain is the 15th most important investor in Serbia, they believe that our market has potential in terms of entering third markets, they see the possibility of additional investments, we talked about it, primarily in the field of telecommunications infrastructure, digitalization, they believe that we have extremely good educated workforce, highly qualified – Matic notes, Vesti Online reports.
The Minister said that Serbia also used the year of the pandemic to increase exports in some markets, primarily in the region and some EU countries – Belgium, Denmark, Finland.
– Total exports fell by 2.6 percent to EU countries, and the EU had a decline of 9.4 to 11 percent. Towards our largest foreign trade partner, Germany, the decline was 0.6 percent, which is a good result in relation to how difficult the year was – Matic emphasizes.
