The Western Balkans region has stopped its economic integration because of the serious crisis facing the CEFTA free trade area, Serbia’s Trade Minister Rasim Ljajic said at the Sarajevo Business Forum on Wednesday.

“The CEFTA agreement has allowed a free market between six Western Balkans economies but it seems the success list ends there because we have stopped the economic integration that should lead us to something that the Baltic and Nordic countries have,” Ljajic said.

The minister said the reasons are political and economic because the region is still dealing with the consequences of the wars and unresolved issues from the 1990s along with other open questions which are hampering its full political stability and because of the customs barriers that are in place between those six countries.

“We want to defend our own economies even though we can’t expect markets this small with small populations to secure higher competitiveness, productivity and economic recovery,” Ljajic said.

He warned that the countries of the region are “highly creative in inventing new obstacles” to stop lorries at border crossings.

The minister said that lorries spend and an average of 20 hours at border crossings at a cost of 158 Dollars which means that logistics expenses stand as high as 16 percent of the GDP or twice the average in the European Union. Ljajic said the CEFTA area states are each others’ top trade partners after the EU.  

The ninth Sarajevo International Business Forum (SBF), an annual investment-business event, which hosts a large number of officials and business people from the region and the world, commenced today in Sarajevo, giving them an opportunity to get acquainted with the business and investment opportunities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the countries of the region.