Mali: Serbia has received proposal of trade agreement with US, we are ready to continue talks

WASHINGTON - Serbian First Deputy PM and Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said on Thursday in Washington Serbia had received a proposal of a trade agreement with the US a few weeks ago, and noted that the country was ready to continue talks with the US administration and that he was certain an agreement would be finalised soon.

"However, not everything is up to us," Mali told reporters, adding that he had also discussed the matter with Minister of Internal and External Trade Jagoda Lazarevic and other relevant ministries.

He said he would also meet with President Aleksandar Vucic in the next few days to go through all elements of the agreement.

"We are ready for that, to open that second round of talks. Every time someone comes up with proposals of tariffs and barriers and obstacles to trade, that means huge uncertainty. That just destroys all possible plans and makes it impossible for you to invest and develop ideas, and so on," Mali said.

He said every country was special and wanted to protect certain economic sectors as well as to pursue its desires.

"We are looking to protect our interests, we will fight as much as we can. Our advantage lies in something else - unlike all those countries that are talking about protectionism and closing their markets, we want to open up the market," said Mali, who is in Washington for the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings.

He noted that, last year, Serbia had signed FTAs with China, Egypt and the UAE and that it was currently in talks about a FTA with South Korea.