English
Macedonia is among the countries that did not receive additional customs duties from the United States, but that does not mean that it trades duty-free with the United States, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said today, commenting on the latest trade changes initited by the US.
In April 2025, those first customs tariffs were introduced. In that group, we as a country were with 33 percent tariffs, and until then we had tariffs that were in accordance with the World Trade Organization, just like Serbia, just like all other countries in the world. Then we negotiated within the framework of negotiations that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade had together with a dozen other institutions with their trade department and somewhere in August 2025 we reached an agreement to lower customs tariffs from 33 to 15 percent. Then in February 2026, the US Supreme Court completely abolished those tariffs, and then a so-called 10 percent trade allowance was introduced towards all countries in the world. We are not in that group of 60 countries with additional obligations, but that does not mean that we do not have tariffs
He pointed out that after negotiations with American institutions, Macedonia secured a reduction in additional tariffs from 33 to 15 percent, after which they were abolished by a decision of the US Supreme Court, and later a new trade allowance was introduced, said Mickoski.
The Prime Minister added that the Government values cooperation with the United States as a strategic partner and expects it to continue to develop in the spirit of mutual partnership.
We appreciate that as a strategic partner with the United States we can finally cooperate the way we deserve and the way strategic partners should cooperate. Naturally, we do not make a show of all this, it is a normal policy that should function that way – he added.