New CEFTA consolidates 32 bilateral free trade agreements
26 Dec '06
2 min read
The EU is by far the region's biggest trading partner and a key source of foreign direct investment. The process of strengthening trading links between the economies of South Eastern Europe is an important part of the EU's wider strategy of growth and stability in the region.
The experience of trade liberalisation in South Eastern Europe is an important precursor to the economic cooperation that is an inherent part of Membership of the European Union.
The signatories of CEFTA are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia (including Kosovo, as defined in United Nations Security Council resolution 1244). Romania and Bulgaria will leave CEFTA when they become members of the European Union on 1 January 2007.
The agreement creates a regional free trade area, based on the existing bilateral agreements which liberalise more than 90 percent of trade and almost all trade in industrial goods.
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