The world trade organization accession as one of the Serbian foreign policy goals

Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), among other things, can be viewed as one of Serbia's foreign policy goals. Observed in this way, the successful completion of the accession process will bring easier market access to the all WTO member countries, but also fulfills one of the key conditions in the negotiations for Serbia's accession to the European Union (Chapter 30). Serbia is an import-dependent country and therefore has a high foreign trade deficit. Our country trades mostly with those countries with which has been signed some kind of trade agreement (EU, CEFTA, Russia, Turkey). That indicates that its entry into the WTO would be beneficial and would facilitate the establishment of trade flows with new partners. Accession would also be useful for an export-oriented model of economic growth. The World Trade Organization is the only global international organization dealing with trade rules between countries. The WTO is the result of multiannual international negotiations aimed at liberalizing international trade. Multilateral negotiations under the WTO umbrella offer the potential to maintain long-term growth, stimulate trade and investment and sustainable economic development. Serbia with its capacities, as a small country, is not in a position to independently create, develop and maintain economic relations with many countries in the world. Therefore, the WTO membership will enable domestic companies and businessmen to export under much more favorable conditions to countries with which Serbia has not yet concluded trade agreements. Serbia started accession to the WTO in 2005 but has not yet completed this process. Taking into account the results of Serbia so far in this process, as well as defining the remaining open issues and problems, we point to the many obstacles our country has encountered, but also on the ways in which the goal can be successfully achieved.