CEFTA

SKOPJE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday Pristina's ban on trade in Serbian goods and an announcement it would stop payment transactions with central Serbia was a "hysterical attack" on Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija and that he had discussed this with US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia James O'Brien.

BELGRADE - Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are the two main CEFTA member states and their bilateral trade volume totalled 3.2 bln euros last year, Serbian Minister of Internal and External Trade Tomislav Momirovic said after a meeting with his Bosnian and Herzegovinian counterpart Stasa Kosarac on Monday.

Montenegro's economy minister Dragica Sekulic said on Monday that joining the 'mini Schengen' initiative for Balkan states proposed by Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia would be a waste of energy because her country has already "opened its borders" and lifted trade barriers to its neighbours.

Instead, Belgrade has decided to go for countermeasures, that are currently under consideration.

The statement was that by introducing 100-percent import fees on goods from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Pristina violated the provisions of CEFTA on free trade in the Western Balkans.

She reiterated that Brussels expected the CEFTA secretariat and all sides to take the necessary measures to guarantee that the agreement was honored.

BELGRADE - The European Commission's decision to raise its 2016 GDP growth forecast for Serbia from 1.6 pct to 2 pct is mostly a result of increased exports and investments and a recovery of Serbia's main trade partners, says Freek Janmaat, the head of the EU integration and economy department of the EU Delegation to Serbia.

BELGRADE - Serbia can attain a bright economic future and the painful reforms will pay off in the end, US Ambassador to Serbia Michael Kirby has said.

It is no secret that Serbia is in a tough economic situation, he told the magazine Nova ekonomija, adding that he thought the team guiding the country's economy was capable of implementing complex reforms.