EU to implement customs duty on fruit and vegetables from Serbia?

The European Commission plans to start implementing special customs duties on certain products from Serbia, primarily fruit and vegetables, as a countermeasure, since the country has been obstructing the issuing of permits for the export of metal waste since last year, causing multi-million damage to companies from that sector and violating the principles of free trade, and with that the Stabilization and Association Agreement, Danas writes.

Several member states complained over the problem of not issuing permits and violating the SAA to the highest EU instances in late 2017 and early 2018.

Early this year, the European Commission sent a memo to Serbia, that is the Ministry of Environmental Protection, seeking an urgent meeting with this topic on the agenda. However, as Danas writes, the meeting has not yet taken place.

The EC therefore decided, as seen from the memo shown to Danas, to initiate the procedure of suspension of autonomous trade measures, which entails customs duties on certain products. As these products are not part of the SAA, the customs duty collection might be carried out within a month, as no special procedures are required for it.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION Bruxelles

Ministarstvo zaštite životne sredine Republike Srbije

export of fruit from Serbia

export of vegetables from Serbia

export to the EU

export of vegetables to the EU

customs duties on the export of fruit

customs duties on the export of vegetables

Stabilization and Association Agreement

SAA

export of metal waste

metal waste