English
Macedonian authorities don’t expect significant problems for the economy after the US tariffs officially went into effect. Macedonia’s rate was eventually set to 15 percent, but talks continue for possibly reducing it.
This is phase one, it’s not a trade agreement because President Trump said that he will declare the new tariffs on August 1st. We had our reduced from 33 to 15 percent. Talks continue, at the moment they are in a hiatus due to the summer holidays, but we expect that we will resume talks in the second half of August and I expect to see the tariffs go down even further, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said recently.
Macedonian Customs director Boban Nikolovski said that there will be no negative effect. “We have prepared analysis and we gave our opinion to the Finance Ministry. If we go with 0 percent tariffs toward the US, and they are set on 15 percent, I don’t think there will be a major effect”, Nikolovski said.
