Lithuania and Bulgaria sign free trade agreement
Updated 2001-05-10
On May 8, Deputy Lithuanian Foreign Minister Dalia Grybauskaitė and Deputy Bulgarian Economics Minister Khristo Mikhailovsky signed the Lithuanian-Bulgarian free trade agreement in Sofia. The negotiations of the agreement were completed on November 28, 2000, when it was initialled after the final round of the negotiations in Sofia.
Bulgaria and other Central European states have created the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and Bulgaria is an EU associate member in negotiations on full membership. The new agreement between Lithuania and Bulgaria means not only increased bilateral trade relations, but also it is another step towards a common European market.
The Lithuanian-Bulgarian free trade agreement will not essentially differ from other agreements, which are already in force. The parties are ready to abolish import tariffs for industrial goods after transitional period. The negotiators of both countries had to take into account the sensibility of agricultural markets and decide to exchange only symbolic concessions. It was agreed that the trade liberalisation of the agricultural goods would be considered in future, if the market situation is favourable. However, after the agreement comes into force Bulgaria will apply preferential import tariffs for Lithuanian cattle, frozen pork, poultry, frozen or smoked fish, milk, butter, cheese, ice cream, beer, etc.
Lithuanian and Bulgarian trade has not been very active till now. According to the Lithuanian Statistics Department, the value of Lithuanian exports to Bulgaria in 2000 came to about 3.25 million USD. Compared with 1999, they were off 24.7 percent. Lithuanian imports from Bulgaria reached about 12 million USD in 2000, up 4 percent from 1999.
Lithuanian businessmen say that the largest obstacle to increase exports to Bulgaria is high custom tariffs, which will disappear when the latest agreement comes into force (once it is ratified in the Lithuanian and Bulgarian parliaments).
Currently Lithuania has free trade agreements with the EU, EFTA, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Hungary and Ukraine. Negotiations with Romania have been concluded as well.
