Effects of SAA Import Liberalization on Serbian Agriculture

In the frame of EU Stabilization and Association Process, Serbia and EU signed Stabilization and Association Agreements (SAA) in 2008, with Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as one of its main parts. SAA Interim Agreement entered in the fifth year of the transitional period ending on January 1, 2014. Serbia got already (2000) non-reciprocal duty-free access to the EU market for nearly all agricultural products. In imports, Serbia committed to abolish/reduce tariffs, lowering average agricultural tariff from 22% to 2.49%. In the paper, the authors focus on the effects of SAA import liberalization and the future import trends in the key sectors of Serbian agriculture analyzing: • structure of agricultural tariffs and import values in 2012, compared to base 2008 year, according to the different models of liberalization, • agricultural trade flows with the EU in the period 2010-2012 compared to total agricultural trade, and some of supply chains, potentially most affected by liberalization process. The results should provide an assessment of the agriculture adjustment level to SAA requirements and evaluation of the SAA trade creation/diversion effects