The CEFTA agreement

Crossing Borders

The main goals and principles of the CEFTA agreement are: no more customs between member countries, state monopolies according to the rules of World Trade Organization and goods from the region marked with "Made in CEFTA". For the customers this means lower prices in the future. For the big companies and producers - the possibility to sell their goods in different countries, but also a larger competition on the market


By MARKO ANDREJIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA


One of the most important economical agreement, especially for the citizens of Central and South Eastern Europe, was signed at the end of last year, on December 19th, 2006 in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. CEFTA (Central European Free Trade Agreement) is an agreement that gives way to new possiblities for trade and bussiness, and some of the main principles are trade without customs between member countries and goods from the entire region with only one "made in" label - Made in CEFTA! Some experts say that this kind of cooperation is a preparation for the European Union rules, as these countries are expected to become EU members, sooner or later. "This is a good exercise for economical globalization and one step closer to European integrations", said Olie Rehn.

The summit in Bucharest was held with the motto "Closer to Europe" and the list of members of the CEFTA agreement looked like this: Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro. After becoming a part of the European Union on January 1, 2007, Romania and Bulgaria are not in this company anymore and the chairman is Macedonia. The first agreement was signed on December 21st, 1992 in Krakow and the first members were the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary.

The main goals and principles of the CEFTA agreement are: no more customs between member countries, state monopolies according to the rules of the World Trade Organization and goods from the region will have the sign "Made in CEFTA". For the usual people and customers this means lower prices in supermarkets, in the future. They will be able to choose between home and abroad made products with a small difference in price. It's still unknown how low the prices will go. On the other side, for the big companies and producers, coming into the CEFTA zone means the possibility to sell their goods in different countries, but it also increases the competition on market. It won't be enough anymore to be the best in your home country!

This agreement should replace, in the summer of 2007, the current and very complicated system comprising the 31 bilateral agreements regarding free trade in Southeastern Europe and the main goal is to make easier trade and investments. The experts expect this new united market to be much more attractive for investors and producers will gain profit through the possibility to place their goods together on the European market. On the other hand, this agreement puts together a market with 30 billion people.

The ratification of the CEFTA agreement in the national parliaments of member countries is scheduled between March and June 2007. That is enough, according to the experts, to solve some of the bilateral problems about agricultural products and cigarettes between Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.