The CEFTA Parties have committed to establishing a regional economic area on the basis of EU compliance and with the objective to decrease the cost of trade and production by eliminating market access barriers.
Trade in goods and services between the CEFTA economies should be free of tariffs, quotas and other non-tariff barriers.
CEFTA activities under its trade facilitation priority aim to boost trade in general and specifically to eliminate barriers to trade. In combination with CEFTA related activities to increase investments flows, this will encourage better integration into the world economy.
The effective implementation of the Additional Protocol 6 on Trade in Services is seen as an essential factor for promoting trade and investment in the region and a key driver for stimulating economic growth in economies of CEFTA.
The expansion of the activities in different areas covered by the CEFTA Agreement provide for the development of new cooperation areas that are covering both goods and services.
Dispute settlement rules were established initially in the CEFTA 2006. As the regional economic integration depended, leading to increased trade flows and increased relations between the Parties, the initial dispute settlement mechanism proved to be ineffective for the existing realities and required serious reform due to limited recourse by the Parties to the resolve disputes.