Trade between China, CEECs amounts to USD 50 billion

BELGRADE - The total trade volume between China and 16 Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) stands at around USD 50 billion, said Bojana Todorovic, assistant to the Serbian minister of trade, stressing that these countries should act as one in trade with this large and important partner.

"All CEECs have mostly run up a deficit in the trade with China. Therefore, they need to come together in regional clusters, chains or other forms of cooperation, especially through strengthening infrastructure connections," said Todorovic at the 4th Economic -Trade Forum of China and 16 CEECs on Tuesday evening.

In the process, as she put it, the parties in question need to identify existing and potential trade barriers and work on removing them.

She said that positive examples of free trade are the CEFTA agreement, and trade with the EU.
"Experience tells us that the liberalization of goods and services is a necessary link to the growth of bilateral, regional and inter-block trade. This is proved by our example as well. Thanks to the free trade agreements, Serbia is no longer a market of eight million people, but rather 800 million," Todorovic said.

Veselin Milosevic, assistant to the director of the Customs Administration, pointed to the importance of modernization of customs procedures.

He said that Serbia will get a more efficient customs system as it would include all customs offices in the New Computerized Transit System (NCTS), which is a condition for country's accession to the EU.

Milan Ristic, director of the Free Zone Administration, underlined that the exports from free zones in Serbia is growing. He said that Serbia has 12 free trade zones, which amount to 25 percent of Serbia's total...