Vucic: FTA with China to be signed on Tuesday and take effect by May or June

BEIJING - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in Beijing on Monday a FTA with China would be signed on Tuesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping in attendance.

He said the agreement would take effect by May or June and include 10,412 Serbian products and 8,930 Chinese products.

"We need to go for so-called preferential arrangements for our agricultural and industrial products. We must win large new markets," Vucic told reporters, adding that Serbia would finalise its part of the procedure by the end of March.

"An exchange of notes with the Chinese side needs to go through in 90 days, and it (the agreement) will take effect by May or June," Vucic said, adding that there would be no more customs tariffs in trade with China.

He said Sino-Serbian political relations were extremely good, and that Serbia's exports to China had risen by 185 times over the past decade and that two Chinese-owned companies were Serbia's top exporters.

He noted that China supported Serbia's territorial integrity.

"In China, that goes without saying, just like our support to the One China policy goes without saying. In our country, there is no doubt about that, despite the differing positions of the Western world," Vucic said.