REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

PART II:
In order to bring to an end of this process of disintegration of the Western Balkan region,
and to create a cooperative environment, and having in mind the positive effects from the
integration process of Central European countries, the Union offered to the countries of the
region a new arrangement, so called, CEFTA-2006. The main goal of the new agreement
was to reintegrate these countries, speed up the process of their international liberalization,
enhancing the economic performances of these economies through intensifying the
economic cooperation within the region. The creation of CEFTA-2006 was considered as
a key device for speeding up the process of successful fulfillment of the benchmarks for
obtaining a full membership into the EU.
This agreement replaced the 32 bilateral free trade agreements that were used to regulate
the trade exchange of goods within the Western Balkan zone (Kikerkova, 2007). Except for
goods and services, the agreement should provide full protection of intellectual property
rights, harmonization of their national technical standards with those of the WTO TBT
Agreement, achievement of fair - competition practices and gradual liberalization of public
procurement of the member-states. Up to 2010 the full establishment of free trade zone
should be achieved.
The implementation of the multilateral agreement during the past two years increased the
trade exchange of goods with the countries from the region. Reducing the quantitative
and qualitative barriers in the regional economic cooperation stimulates the Macedonian
foreign trade. In 2007 the exchange of goods was increased for 35%, and in 2008 for 80%
compared with the scope of exchange in 2006. The export of goods exceeds the import of
goods and has positive effects on Macedonian trade balance. After the trends of reducing
the scope of trade before 2006, signing the multilateral agreement CEFTA -2006 induce
countries to augment their mutual cooperation. Beside the increase the scope of exchange
within the CEFTA-2006, still the exchange of goods with EU dominates in the total foreign
trade. The more important is the fact the unfavorable structure of goods exchange, i.e. the
row materials and intermediary goods are dominant in the Macedonian exports, opposite to
the structure of Macedonian imports which is dominated by the goods with high industrial
finalization. Therefore, one of the main sources of permanent increasing of the trade deficit
is the permanent increasing of the scope of exchange with the European companies. (This
is shown in Table 5).
Table 5: Participation of trade exchange within the CEFTA – 2006 in the total
trade exchange
Amount of total trade
exchange
(million USA $) (1)
Amount of trade
exchange within the
CEFTA- 2006 (2)
(2/1)%
Net export
or (net import)
(million USA $)
2006* 6.164 1.188 19,27 388
2007 8.584 1.606 18,71 378
2008 10.754 2.172 20,20 656
Source: Reports on foreign trade of Macedonia 2007and 2008 and authors’callsulations
Notice:Data for 2006 is for the comparison.
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