Following the six National Consultation Meetings (NCM) held in Western Balkans CEFTA Parties, two regional meetings of private sector representatives were organized in Belgrade, on March 7-8, under the role of the Regional Business Advisory Group (RBAG) for both iron and steel and vegetables sectors. The aim of the meeting is to bring together private sector representatives from all participating CEFTA parties and provide them with a platform to further deliberate on the identified common issues in doing trade in the region.

The meeting gathered a diverse set of members of both sectors (including producers, exporters, importers, private trade support institutions etc.) from participating CEFTA parties in order to further discuss the common and most problematic market access barriers in the region. Facilitated by ITC experts, the objective of the discussions was to share ideas and form common positions of the participants on the issues and brainstorm group recommendations that can be initiated on the regional level.

Such RBAG meetings are foreseen to be held regularly as a forum for discussion about barriers to trade, but also proposed solutions and implementation of the recommendations made through the project. This meeting served as a validation of the findings made during the NCM meetings, which will result in finalized national reports on detected NTBs in WB CEFTA Parties.