2-nd International Symposium "Shaping Europe 2020: Socio-Economic Challenges" Title: Effects of the free trade Agreements on the development of Agriculture sector in the Balkan region. Ndoc Faslia¹ Fran Brahimi² ¹Ministry of Agriculture ²Ministry of Finace Albania

Introduction On December 19, 2006, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and the Kosovo signed an Agreement to amend and enlarge the Central European Free Trade (CEFTA 2006). The Agreement aims not only to expand trade in goods and services within for South East Europe Countries, by means of fair, stable and predictable rules, but also it goes further in regional integration by including the provision for intellectual properties rights, public procurement and investment. The last step of this Agreement is the signing of Additional Protocol, which has cut most of the duties and quotas for agriculture products.

Introduction With the Additional Protocol Albania has dropped all the duties and quotas with the CEFTA members, excluding Bosnia and Herzegovina that has not Signed the Additional Protoc. Additional Protocol of the CEFTA Agreement will further liberalize trade in agricultural products, increasing the opportunity for access to agricultural products in a free trade area of about 30 million inhabitants without any tariff or quota. the main challenge for the Balkan countries is to exploit this growing opportunities to access markets, which means to increase domestic product, and to be oriented to the export of those products for which countries have more potential and more competitive skills.

Material and Methods Many statistical data are analysed, on production, exports and imports of agricultural products before signing the agreement and after the signing of the agreement. The analysis is done for the period , for a four years period. It is analyzed the volume of trade exchanges of each country in relation to the CEFTA member states as well as in relation to the volume of general trade. Present study reflects the weight of trade partners within the CEFTA agreement. More specifically are analyzed specific products that are exported and imported from and to Albania with CEFTA member countries.

Results and Discussion Agricultural products trade exchanges with CEFTA countries for the period resulted in an increase compared to In 2010 there was an significantly increase as a result of increasing exports by about 65% compared to 2009, or the level of exports is about 40% higher than exports in On the other hand the level of imports has continued to grow by about 60% in 2010, compared to In total, the volume of trade exchange in 2010 has increased by 61% and import- export ratio was at 1:8,5.

Results and Discussion Regarding the level of exports to CEFTA countries, the table shows that in 2009 there was a decline in exports for all CEFTA member countries. While in 2010 the level of exports has increased for all countries.Kosovo in 2010 has been the main destination of Albanian exports about 40% of total exports, followed by Bosnia & Herzegovina and Macedonia respectively 19 % and 17 % of the total volume of exports. With regard to imports, in 2010, there is again an increase in the volume of imports from all CEFTA member states. From Serbia have originated about 26% of Albanian imports, followed by Macedonia with 18 and Kosovo14%.

Results and Discussion Years Exports $ Imports $ Trade volume Tab. 1. The volume of exports and imports

Results and Discussion Chart nr. 1. The development of trade exchanges The chart presents the development of trade exchanges for the period which clearly shows an increase in trading volume after 2007.

Results and Discussion Chart nr. 2. The share of each CEFTA member countries in total trade exchange

Results and Discussion The chart below shows the share of each CEFTA member countries in total trade exchange of Albania in As can be seen from the graph Albania's main trading partners within CEFTA countries are Croatia and Serbia each occupy 24% of total trade exchange in Albania. While the smaller share trading partner is Montenegro which accounts for only 1% of the volume of trade exchanges.

Results and Discussion Chart nr. 3. Albanian exports Chart nr. 4. Albanian imports

Results and Discussion Albanian products exported are dominated mainly by raw products. More specifically, the most exported product to the B & H has been leathers that constitutes 96% of total exports. To Croatia are mainly exported canned fish, watermelon, medicinal plants, and fresh tomatoes. While in terms of Albanian imports from CEFTA countries it is seen a dominance of processed products. Also it is noticed a significant weight import of grain(cereals) from these countries, because albanian agriculture can not be competitive in the market for this product, focusing mainly on the production of vegetables, using the advantage of climate for the production of these products.

Conclusions Implementation of the free trade agreement CEFTA, has leaded to the growth of the volume of trade exchange between the Balkan countries. The exchange volume is increased to 40% for exports and about 60% for imports over the last 3-4 years. Additional Protocol to the CEFTA Agreement for full liberalization of trade exchanges, creates the opportunity for further growth of these trade, exchanges in agriculture.

Conclusions Removal of tariffs and quotas, necessitates the improvement of production technologies, modernization of production, reduce costs and increase the competitiveness of agricultural products. In all CEFTA member countries, in order to raise competitiveness is required a deep structural changes in the agricultural sector, in order to make better use of natural resources in agriculture.

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