Ministry Of Commerce Official Announcement! China And This Country Have Signed! 90% Of The Tariff Lines Are Eliminated From Each Other!

On October 17, under the joint witness of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Serbian President Vucic, Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and Serbian Minister of Domestic and Foreign Trade Momirovic signed the Free Trade Agreement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Serbia on behalf of their respective governments.

This is the first FTA signed between China and Central and Eastern European countries and also the 22nd FTA signed by China, and Serbia became China's 29th FTA partner.

The signing of the China-Serbia FTA is an important initiative to implement the consensus of the leaders of the two countries and is also an important outcome of the Third "Belt and Road" International Cooperation Summit Forum.

Zero tariffs will be gradually realized in the future.

The China-Serbia FTA has achieved a high level of liberalization of trade in goods on the basis of mutual benefit and a win-win situation, said the relevant person in charge of the Department of International Economic and Trade Relations of the Ministry of Commerce. The two sides will abolish tariffs on 90 percent of tariff lines, respectively, which will cover about 95 percent of bilateral trade. Among them, more than 60 percent of the tariff lines will be eliminated immediately after the entry into force of the agreement. In terms of specific products, the tariffs on most of the products in China and Serbia are currently between 5 and 20 percent, and zero tariffs will be gradually realized in the future.

Providing a more stable and transparent business environment for enterprises in both countries

By signing the FTA, China and Serbia have made legally binding commitments to each other, including rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical standards, and other aspects, the person in charge said. This will provide a more stable and transparent business environment for enterprises in both countries to carry out cooperation and further enhance the level of trade facilitation between the two countries.

Yu Benlin, Director General of the Department of International Economic and Trade Relations of the Ministry of Commerce: For example, in terms of the implementation of origin, the China-Serbia FTA allows approved exporters to submit declarations of origin on their own without applying for certificates of origin, which will greatly facilitate the enjoyment of preferential treatment by enterprises.

Serbia is an important partner of China in building the "Belt and Road", and in recent years, the two sides have had fruitful cooperation in trade, investment, contracting, and other areas. Leaders of the two countries have proposed to strengthen strategic docking and build the "Belt and Road" together with high quality. The signing of the China-Serbia FTA is conducive to promoting the quality and upgrading of bilateral economic and trade cooperation at the level of institutional arrangements, helping to promote the high-quality construction of the "Belt and Road", and continuously deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.