Vucic from Tbilisi: Free trade deal with Georgia is close
Speaking in Tbilisi, the Serbian president said only two to three percent of the free trade agreement with Georgia remains unsettled, and announced the Georgian prime minister's imminent arrival to sign it.
- In Tbilisi, Vucic said only 2 to 3 percent of the free trade agreement text with Georgia remains unsettled.
- The trade target was set at a first 100 million euros, against last year's 32 to 33 million.
- Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze is expected to arrive soon, partly to sign the agreement.
- The official visit to Georgia runs from June 15 to 17 and is the first by a Serbian president.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in Tbilisi, during an afternoon address on the first day of his official visit to Georgia, that a free trade agreement between the two countries is effectively within reach. According to him, only two to three percent of the treaty text remains unsettled, and those differences, he assessed, should be resolved quickly. The remarks came a few hours after the delegation arrived in the Georgian capital, giving the morning’s announcement of the visit its first concrete substance.
“We have two or three percent of unsettled matters left, and I believe we will resolve that quickly,” Vucic said in Tbilisi. The president also spelled out the economic frame around the negotiations: trade between Serbia and Georgia last year ran at roughly 32 to 33 million euros, and the goal after signing becomes considerably more ambitious. “Our goal should be a first 100 million euros in trade,” he said, a figure that would more than triple the current level of exchange.
What does the prime minister’s visit bring?
Vucic also announced the imminent arrival of Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, whose visit should, among other things, serve to sign the agreement. That moves the final step to the level of heads of government, the usual format when a trade treaty is closed after technical alignment at a lower level. The president’s visit to Georgia itself runs from June 15 to 17 and is the first of its kind, so the diplomatic frame carries symbolic weight on top of its economic content.
During the address, Vucic also announced the imminent opening of a Serbian embassy in Tbilisi, citing among the reasons assistance to Serbian tourists who increasingly choose Georgia as a destination. A diplomatic mission on the ground also changes the context for future trade and consular relations, shifting them from occasional contacts to a permanent presence.
What does the deal mean for the budget and prices?
From Tbilisi, Vucic also spoke about the broader economic moment, beyond the bilateral frame with Georgia. He said the price of oil had fallen in a single day from 94.5 to 83.5 dollars, judging that such a move leaves a mark on the budget through excise revenue. A drop in the commodity’s world price eases pressure on consumers in the short term, but at the same time narrows one of the stable sources of budget revenue, so the two sides of that ledger do not align automatically.
A trade agreement with Georgia, if signed within the announced timeframe, fits the logic of market diversification that Belgrade has been discussing for several election cycles. The stakes are not large in absolute figures, but opening a new market and the accompanying diplomatic mission lay a foundation that is hard to build after the fact. The open question concerns those last few percent: whether the unsettled portion relates to tariff schedules, agricultural quotas, or something more sensitive has not yet been disclosed. In your view, how much will a new market really mean to Serbian exporters?
