Deutsch
Producing and exporting from Serbia
You do not have to be located locally in the countries where your market is in order to avoid being burdened by custom duties. You can produce with us in Serbia and supply your customers within a number of markets worldwide duty free.
Serbia has several Free Trade Agreements, which enable duty free export of goods with Serbian origin to the designated partner countries. Place your order with us, we will manufacture the requested product and send it either directly to your customer or to your local subsidiary/ distributor. This way you can be present on the markets within the Free Trade Zone without the need to establish a footprint in the country, at the same time without paying custom duties. There are several models how to utilize the opportunities present. We will gladly elaborate a model with you, tailored to your needs.
Serbia is the only country outside of CIS countries, which enjoys a Free Trade relation with the Russian Federation and Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Russian market is one of the rare markets in Europe which shows steady growth and increase in demand, also during the financial turmoil in the rest of Europe. With an exemption of just a few products all goods which are “Made in Serbia” are eligible to be certified and exported to Russia without duty fees. Rule of origin is undemanding: more than 50% of EXW price of the product has to be generated in Serbia (including overhead costs, margin). Goods/ raw materials originating from any country member of the Customs union are considered domestic when determining and calculating the origin.
Serbia is in the process of becoming a member of EU and has a Free Trade Agreement with EU. Rules of origin are more complex than the ones within the Agreement with the Russian Federation, and there are few general rules. Therefore, we have to approach every product individually in order to determine whether or not it would be viable to achieve the duty free status. Nevertheless, all products with Serbian origin, with exemption of baby beef, sugar, wine and fish are eligible to be exported to EU quota and duty free. As the case with the FTA with the Russian Federation goods/ raw materials originating from any country member of the Customs union (EU, Turkey, CEFTA, EFTA) are considered domestic when determining and calculating the origin.
As a developing country, Serbia has been granted a liberalized trade relation with USA under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). There are no complicated procedures for companies to become eligible to market their goods under the GSP program. There is a requirement that 35% or more of the value added to the product to be exported must come directly from Serbia. Products eligible for duty-free treatment include: most manufactured items, many types of chemicals, minerals, and building stones, jewelry, many types of carpets, and certain agricultural and fishery products.
The Free Trade Agreement with Turkey is very similar to the FTA between Serbia and EU deriving from the same platform: the Stabilization and Association Agreement.
CEFTA is a Central European Free Trade Agreement including today 7 countries: Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania, Moldova and Kosovo. The Agreement is very similar to the FTA between Serbia and EU.
European Free Trade Agreement includes: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The Agreement is very similar to the FTA between Serbia and EU.