REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

PART II:
standards of the World Trade Organization, removal of trade barriers in the region, and
introduces arbitration for dispute resolution and the rule of diagonal cumulation. As any
other agreement, it is the result of compromise, which means that it has both advantages
and drawbacks. Nevertheless, it is expected that it will strongly influence the mutual trade
of the countries of Southeastern Europe and promote their process of integration into the
European Union.
CEFTA 2006 envisages an improved mechanism for settlement of disputes that might
occur during the agreement implementation, which represents a new quality and a factor
of higher security of liberalisation in the region. Besides the abovementioned, new areas
have been opened for development of mutual relations as regards liberalisation of services,
investment issues, public procurements, intellectual property, and possibility for CEFTA
cumulation of origin among the Parties.
In summary, CEFTA 2006 provides: full conformity with WTO, free trade up-front in all
industrial products and many agricultural products (>90%), modern provisions on traderelated
issues, evolutionary clauses on new trade issues, mechanisms for implementation
and dispute settlement, harmonization on EU-acquis and a pre-accession track.
A necessary condition for the success of CEFTA 2006 is that all the countries that have
accepted the Agreement should have the same obligations and fulfill all the accepted
provisions. It is not enough to accept provisions only on paper, for the sake of satisfying
the international community: it is necessary to genuinely carry out the principles of
free trade, in order to secure the region’s more rapid economic development and its
convergence with the European Union. We believe that all the countries are aware
of the fact that the road to the EU market, WTO membership, the size of foreign
investments, etc. greatly depend on the individual implementations of CEFTA 2006.
SEE countries are heading for EU membership at different pace. However, there is the
only one “European road” to take them to this end. The creation of a single regional market
(CEFTA 2006) is constructive step to reinforce European perspective for all SEE countries.
As far as Serbia is concerned, accompanied with necessary investments in infrastructure,
will the country move closer to the EU. CEFTA 2006 is an important economic means to
a major political end.
REFERENCES
Agreement on Amendment of and Accession to the Central European Free Trade
Agreement
Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, Trade Association, The CEFTA 2006 Agreement, April
2007, Stable internet address: www.kombeg.org.rs.
Božić, M. (2006) Ekonomska politika, Pravni fakultet u Nišu, Niš,.
Consolidated Version of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA 2006)
Dangerfield, M. (2004) CEFTA: Between the CMEA and the European Union, European
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