Cadez: Serbia Looking for Best Solution to U.S. Tariffs

Marko Cadez (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC)

Serbian Chamber of Commerce President Marko Cadez has announced that Serbia is investing efforts in negotiations with the U.S. to mitigate its new tariffs which the U.S. administration has said will take effect on Aug. 1, especially for its most important exports which includes tires.

"I am an optimist with regard to finding the best solution, given the good political and economic relations with the U.S.," Cadez told Bloomberg Adria TV, the Serbian Chamber of Commerce reported on July 10. Commenting on the Makroekonomske Analize I Trendovi magazine's estimates that Serbia's GDP will grow by 2.8 percent or even by 4.2 percent which is the Serbian Cabinet's optimistic prediction, he said that GDP growth depended on the country's export markets which were slowing down, especially in the EU.

"In Germany which is economically stagnating and where investments are declining, slight recovery has been registered and our companies exported 20.7 percent more there year-on-year in the first months. We are seeing a surplus in trade with Germany for the first time in the past two decades, which is a result of quality cooperation and an increase in orders from Serbian companies," Cadez said.

He added that statistics showed that Serbian industrial production and exports were growing and that exports had increased by 10.2 percent in the first five months year-on-year, which, he said, indicated that the Serbian economy was functioning stably in complex conditions. Cadez warned, however, that caution was needed due to the many challenges that Serbia faced especially with regard to global trade relations.