Accession of Croatia to CEFTA

In July 2001, Croatia submitted the application to join CEFTA. In October 2001, the CEFTA Joint Committee made a decision to initiate the negotiations among the CEFTA countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Polland, Rumania and the Republic of Slovakia) on the one side, and Croatia on the other. Negotiations which started in the beginning of 2002 were accomplished on 8 October 2002 by initialling the agreement. The agreement was signed on 5 December 2002 in Zagreb. It began to apply on 1 March 2003, since it first had to be ratified by Rumania and Slovenia, while other CEFTA states and Croatia can choose the provisional application of the agreement.

Slovenia ratified the agreement on 26 February 2003. The agreement was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia (Uradni list RS - Mednarodne pogodbe, No. 5/03 (Ur. l. RS, No. 23/03)).

The essential part of the accession agreement are methods and dynamism of the liberalization of mutual trade with industrial and agricultural products among CEFTA countries and Croatia. The provisions of the currently applicable Agreement on Free Trade between the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia, including the amendments introduced on 1 July 2002 in the field of trade with agricultural products by the Additional Protocol No. 1, were transferred to the Agreement on the Accession of the Republic of Croatia to CEFTA (trade between Slovenia and Croatia within the framework of the Agreement on the Accession of the Republic of Croatia to CEFTA is defined in Protocols 37 and 43). Customs duties for the import of industrial products thus continue to be mutually removed. As regards trade with the agricultural products, the customs duties and special import taxes have been removed for the products listed in Annex A, reduced for products listed in Annex B, and reduced or removed within the framework of the customs quotas for products listed in Annex C or D to Protocol 43. The Agreement on the Accession of the Republic of Croatia to CEFTA has brought only two changes as regards the customs tariff. Firstly, for sugar-free water, olive oil and preserved fish which are classified under Annex A, the customs duties will be gradually reduced in the transitional period in line with the provisions of Annex A1 to Protocol 43. And secondly, for beef and pork, smoked ham, pasta and apple juice classified under Annex B, the customs duties will be gradually reduced in the transitional period in line with the provisions of Annex B1 to Protocol 43.

Upon the accession of the Republic of Croatia to CEFTA, the rules on the origin of goods were also upgraded. The acquisition of the origin is a prerequisite to import or export the products preferentially. New rules on the origin do not only enable a bilateral cumulation, but also the so-called enlarged cumulation. It means that upon the acquisition of the Slovenian origin, the materials originating from other states, parties to the pan-European cumulation (e.g. European Union) will also be taken into account (beside the Slovenian and the Croatian materials). Some products which could not obtain the origin under the bilateral free trade agreement will be able to obtain one upon the accession of the Republic of Croatia to CEFTA and will therefore be exported according to the preferential rate. The Agreement on Free Trade between the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia ceased to apply with the entry into force of the Agreement on the Accession of the Republic of Croatia to CEFTA.