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Today, July 1st 2024, marks the occasion of the coming into force of the Free Trade Agreement between Serbia and China. The agreement, signed in late 2023, aims to usher in a new era of cooperation between the countries.
The agreement’s goal is to simplify and streamline customs procedures and reduce customs fees for most of the products traded between the parties over a period of 15 years. It contains a list of limitations concerning the origin of goods traded and two lists of concessions detailing the treatment and timeline of each of the products concerned, with trade in over 10.000 products slated for liberalization either immediately or gradually. More specifically, over 60% of products on both sides are slated for immediate liberalization.
And while for many of the products encompassed the liberalization is full and immediate, parites have taken steps towards protecting critical and strategic industries from market disturbances. In the case of Serbia, these constitute mainly agricultural products.
In general terms, the products subject to concessions will need to originate in the contracting party either wholly (typical for raw materials and agricultural products), or partially, depending on the degree of processing.
The full list of concessions would be impossible to reproduce within this newsletter, but we will highlight some of the landmark products in the remainder of the text, with details on product categories and the dynamics of customs rate changes.
China to Serbia
Boilers, central heating, cast iron: base 10, liberalized over 10 years
Boilers, central heating, other: base 10, liberalized over 15 years
Smartphones: base 5, liberalized over 5 years
Evaporative air coolers: base 1, immediate liberalization
Household washing machines, top-loading: base 15, immediate liberaization
Electronic cigarettes: base 5, liberalized over 5 years
Serbia to China
Fruit, dried, apricots, prunes and apples: base 25, liberalized over 15 years
Homogenized preparations; jams, fruit jellies, marmalades, fruit or nut purees and fruit or nut pastes, obtained by cooking, whether or not containin gadded sugar or other sweetening matter: base 5, immediate liberalization
Mixtures of fruit juices: base 5, liberalized over 5 years
Mineral and aerated waters: base 5, immediate liberalization
Wood in the rough, whether or not stripped of bark or sapwood, or roughly squared: immediate liberalization
Builders’ joinery and carpentry of wood, including cellular wood panels, assembled flooring panels, shingles and shakes: immediate liberalization (excepting shuttering for concrete work (base 4) and shingles and shakes (base 6), for which there shall be no liberalization
Wooden and metal furniture: immediate liberalization
Woven fabrics: immediate liberalization
Carpets: immediate liberalization (excepting carpets from man-made textile materials (base 6, liberalized over 5 years))
Tulles and other net fabrics: immediate liberalization
Beer made from malt – immediate liberalization
The above constitutes only a minor extract from the full list of concessions. The FTA is expected to create new opportunities for actors from both parties across a broad range of industries: perhaps this is also your next big opportunity.
