August 25 (SeeNews) - Serbia could sign an agreement on duty-free trade with the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) by November, Serbian trade minister Rasim Ljajic told SeeNews on Thursday.
The goal is to include in the preferential scheme products such as Fiat cars, sugar, wine, poultry, tobacco, certain cheeses and types of cotton, the minister noted in his e-mailed statement to SeeNews.
The Union consists of Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, which is a huge market opening new opportunities for Serbia, Ljajic said, noting that having free-trade agreements with both the EU and the EEU will attract more foreign investors.
Serbia can start duty-free exports of Fiat Chrysler cars produced at its Kragujevac plant to the Euroasia region after Kazakhstan agreed to support its request, Serbian economy minister Goran Knezevic said on Tuesday. The number of Fiat vehicles to be exported to the market will also be set in the negotiations, Ljajic added.
Kazakhstan has been the only country of the Union which opposed Serbia's duty-free exports to the region because it wanted to protect domestic production. However, Kazakh economy minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev promised that the country would vote in favour of the option at the next Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.
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Car maker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), a joint venture of Italy's Fiat and the Serbian state, was Serbia's biggest exporter in the first half of the year with 663.6 million euro ($749.9 million) of sales abroad.
($= 0.8861 euro)