Five Years since Slovenia's Accession to CEFTA

Five years ago to the day Slovenia signed the Central Europe Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), thus becoming the fifth out of today's seven CEFTA signatories on 1 January 1996. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were the founding members of the agreement on 1 March 1993, the aim of which was to boost trade between the signatory countries and create a free trade area by 2001 and prepare the signatories for EU accession. Croatia is also interested in accession to CEFTA.

Slovenia applied for CEFTA membership after meeting all the formal criteria, such as membership in the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as well as signing bilateral agreements will the four original CEFTA signatory countries. Today the CEFTA agreement associates seven countries with Romania and Bulgaria joining in 1997 and 1999.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia are the front-runners for EU membership and other CEFTA countries are also negotiating EU accession. The main issues, resulting from imbalance on the CEFTA market or the problematic balance of payments, which CEFTA has to deal with are related to trading of agricultural and food products and the introduction of safety measures. All CEFTA countries agree that CEFTA activities should support EU accession for its countries as soon as possible. The CEFTA agreement has been changed and amended many times since Slovenia became its signatory.

The trade between Slovenia and other CEFTA countries has increased substantially in the last five years. Slovenia's export to the CEFTA countries amounted to 482 million U.S. dollars, while the import was at 649 million U.S. dollars in 1996. In 1999, however, Slovenia exported 622 million U.S. dollars worth of goods to the enlarged CEFTA area, while its imports reached 851 million U.S. dollars. Slovenia's export to the CEFTA market increased by 17.7 percent to stand at 517 million U.S. dollars in the first nine months of 2000. The imports went up by 15 percent amounting to 694 million U.S. dollars.

Agricultural and food products present about 14 percent of the imports to Slovenia from other CEFTA countries (especially Hungary) and only two percent of the exports.

Source: Slovene Press Agency STA