By majority vote, the Committee members accepted the Committee Chairperson’s proposal to complete a joint debate on all the bills after they had been presented by the representatives of the submitters - Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Mining and Energy.

The Bill on the Confirmation of the Decision of the Joint Committee between the EFTA States and the Republic of Serbia 1/2018 amending Protocol B to the Free Trade Agreement between EFTA Member States and the Republic of Serbia defining the “concept of originating products and methods of administrative of cooperation” and the Decision of the Joint Committee between the EFTA States and the Republic of Serbia 2/2018 amending Annex IV of the Free Trade Agreement between EFTA Member States and the Republic of Serbia, Trade Facilitation was presented by Acting Assistant Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Olivera Jocic. She said that the chief idea behind the Bill is to create a trade zone of originating products and facilitate trade between the countries which have signed free trade agreements. The Bill also amends the annex to the agreement to facilitate trade between the EFTA states. The objective is to facilitate and speed up trade and cut the costs of trade.

Vera Jankovic of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Tourism Sector presented the Bill on the Confirmation of the Tourism Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Albania. She said that the Agreement was signed on 15 May 2018 since the existing one dates back to 2005 and needed to be amended to improve the bilateral relations between Serbia and Albania. Although there is ample potential to develop tourism Serbia lacks a detailed overview of the tourist exchange with Albania which the Bill is expected to remedy by improving the exchange of tourism-related statistics and data.

The Bill on the Confirmation of Additional Protocol 5 to the Agreement on Amendment of and the Accession to the Central European Free Trade Agreement and the Central European Free Trade Agreement Joint Committee Decision 3/2015 adopted on 26 November 2015 amending the Central European Free Trade Agreement Joint Committee Decision 3/2013 regarding Annex 4 of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA 2006), Protocol Concerning the Definition of the Concept of “Originating Products” and Methods of Administrative Cooperation referred to in Article 14, paragraph 1 and 3 adopted on 20 November 2013 was presented by Tatjana Stanic of the Ministry of Finance who said that the Bill is to ratify two acts and eliminate the obstacles to trade between the CEFTA signatories. Protocol 5 simplifies customs-related formalities and inspections and enables the reciprocal recognition of authorized business entities in the CEFTA region. Joint Committee Decision 3 instates full control of origin and revokes the ban on repayment for materials intended for export products.

Srdjan Stevic of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications presented the Bill on the Confirmation of Protocol I of the Free Trade Agreement between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Turkey and Protocol III on Trade in Services of the Free Trade Agreement between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Turkey. The original Agreement was signed in 2010 and its application had yielded positive results such as the 8.5-fold increase of export into Turkey. The new Agreement was signed on 30 January 20918 and its Protocol I steps up the liberalization of food and agricultural product export onto the Turkish market with a preferential customs rate, while Protocol III expands the trade in services and enables the reciprocal opening of service markets in a variety of fields.

The Bill on the Confirmation of the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Government of the Republic of Turkey on Stimulation and Protection of Investment was presented by Acting Assistant Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Olivera Jocic who said that the two countries’ ever expanding relations open up room for additional investment. The two countries decided to finalize the legislative framework for reciprocal investments and signed a new generation trade agreement guaranteeing national as well as preferential treatment for investors.

Olga Antic Miocinovic of the Ministry of Mining and Energy presented the Bill on the Confirmation of the Protocol amending the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Government of the Russian Federation on Delivery of Natural Gas from the Russian Federation to the Republic of Serbia of 13 October 2012. The original natural gas supply agreement for Serbia only was signed in 2012, however Serbia is obliged to adjust its legislation to EU directives which required signing a protocol that the Russian side agreed to. The Protocol was signed on 19 December 2017 and has already been ratified by Russia so that the gas in question will not be intended for use in Serbia only.

The Bill on the Confirmation of the Economic, Trade and Technical Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Government of the State of Qatar was presented by Nevena Subasic of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications who said that the objective of the Agreement is to foster the development of trade and economic exchange, a type of cooperation Serbia and Qatar have lacked so far. The Agreement was signed 7 January 2016 and, among other things, stipulates the establishment of mixed inter-governmental bodies to monitor the advancement of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Presenting the Bill on the Confirmation of the Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Argentina and the Bill on the Confirmation of the Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Government of Georgia, Nevena Subasic of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications who said that they are similar to the Agreement with the State of Qatar, however the Agreement with Argentina was signed at their initiative since the Argentinianside revised the previously signed Agreement with Serbia.

The Bill on the Confirmation of the Tourism Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Government of the Republic of Greece was presented by Vera Jankovic of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications who said that its goal is to attract more Greek tourists. The Agreement which is to replace the 1959 Agreement currently in force has good chances of attracting Greek tourists in view of the fact that their numbers had in 2017 gone up by 9.1% and a good chance for the development of special needs tourism.

Following a debate, the Committee members accepted all the bills.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Snezana B. Petrovic and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Snezana R. Petrovic, Gorica Gajic, Studenka Kovacevic, Zoran Bojanic, Prof. Dr Vladimir Marinkovic, Dr Aleksandra Tomic, Tomislav Ljubenovic, Ana Carapic, Milimir Vujadinovic, Stanislava Janosevic and Snezana Paunovic.