Prime Minister Drnovsek: CEFTA Can Help New Signatories in the EU Integration Process

The co-operation between candidate countries for EU membership within the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) has definitely contributed to making them fit for the integration in the EU, said Slovenian PM Janez Drnovsek, who attended the CEFTA summit in the Slovakian capital on Saturday, 14 September.

Drnovsek pointed out that Slovenia, which is to host next year's CEFTA summit, will try to maintain co-operation between signatory countries, as regional trade co-operation stimulates economic development, positively affecting an all-round development of the relations between these countries. "We well also try to keep the doors open for any new country," Slovenian Prime Minister also said.

In Drnovsek's words, CEFTA will keep its role also in the future, and its openness to new members is the main condition for that. "Last year I had suggested that candidate countries ought to be granted a transition period in which to get a certain degree of trade liberalisation in the CEFTA framework," Drnovsek said. Such a move would increase flexibility of the integration process, making integration possible also for those countries that could not participate in the agreement due to particularly delicate aspects of their economy.

At the end of next year, CEFTA is expected to lose some of its signatories - which currently include Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Rumania - because all countries that are integrated in the EU have to give up all free trade agreements that do not involve the EU. Thus, Slovenia will try to make sure that next year, when it is to preside over CEFTA, all issues concerning the future of the agreement get solved.

The Slovenian Prime Minister pointed out that the liberalisation of market with agricultural products within CEFTA should not lag behind the EU liberalisation. The recently reached agreements on further liberalisation of the agricultural market between individual CEFTA signatories and the EU have led to a state where advantages that CEFTA members grant to each other are not as big as those given by the EU.

In order to surmount this difference, Drnovsek believed that signatories would have to show more interest in the liberalisation within CEFTA. Slovenia has almost concluded its negotiations on the liberalisation of agricultural product trade with the Czech Republic and Slovakia, a welcome step in the right direction, according to Drnovsek.

Economic co-operation between signatories, in Drnovsek's words, is also obstructed by protection measures. "I see that the amount of these measures has not reduced. On the contrary, new have been introduced that are not always justified," he pointed out.

In his view, signatories ought to make sure that such measures do not affect the traditional trading streams between the countries. It is thus essential for the future development of trade relations between CEFTA members that a limited use of protection measures is assured, along with a positive development in the field of agricultural market liberalisation and openness of the regional framework to new members.

The Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) signatories will continue to make efforts to diminish the hurdles to free trade among the members, while the organisation remains open for newcomers, was written in a joint declaration signed upon the conclusion of the CEFTA summit. Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek, who also attended the event, said that that the summit was successful, as the signatories had established that CEFTA has fulfilled its purpose. CEFTA, which will next year celebrate the 10th anniversary, is according to Drnovsek important for further integration of Europe. "It can represent a transitional stage before EU accession," Drnovsek said at a news conference after the signing of the declaration. The Slovenian PM sees Macedonia, as well as the FRY and other East European countries as potential CEFTA signatories in future. The declaration also welcomes the upcoming Croatia's accession to CEFTA.

Slovenia became a CEFTA member in 1996. According to the 1992 CEFTA agreement, the member states - Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania - have established a free trade area, which currently represents a nearly 90-million market. Trade with industrial goods is completely open, while duties on agricultural produce have not been entirely done away with.

Slovenia' exports to CEFTA countries increased by 7.1% to US$ 741m in 2001 over 2000 and imports by 5.1% to US$ 966m. Year on year, the first seven months of 2002 saw a jump in exports by 11.5% to EUR 534.9m and a drop in imports by one percent to EUR 635.7m. Slovenia's import of agricultural products from CEFTA is twelve times higher than the export. But in trade with industrial products, Slovenia nearly balanced the imports and exports in the first half of this year.

Source: Slovene Press Agency STA