Negotiations on a free trade agreement between China and Serbia got underway in earnest last month, with a deal expected to be signed by the end of the year – meaning tariffs on goods flowing both ways could be abolished. 

Several Serbian industries are looking forward to the signing. Among them are the wineries from the flatlands of northern Serbia. 

Many of the vineyards are still only a few decades old, but the wine that's produced there has quickly conquered the domestic market – and now, more growers are looking abroad. 

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A winery in the town of Palic is one of several that see China as a potential key market. It currently exports around 10 percent of its wine, and most of that ends up in China. 

The prospect of a free trade agreement is seen as a cause for optimism, as Srđan Lukajic, director of Zvonko Bogdan winery tells CGTN.

"We expect a lot from it," he says. "The free trade agreement would mean that the current tariffs, of around 26-27 percent, would fall to zero. That would make our products far more competitive, and prices for Chinese consumers would fall by at least 25 percent. "

It's because of this that the company is already considering expanding its vineyards to boost production capacity. But it's not all about wine. China is Serbia's single largest trade partner. 

Direct Chinese investment into the Serbian economy has skyrocketed in recent years, while Serbian exports to China have also shot up, from just $6 million in 2012 to over $1.3 billion in 2022. The free trade agreement is expected to push that to even higher levels.

"All our companies would have the right to sell their products directly to the Chinese market. It is self-explanatory," Serbia's trade minister Tomislav Momirovic tells CGTN. 

"We'll have access to the largest market on the planet. It increases our economy's attractiveness, opens up the chances for new investments, and opens up a perspective we could have only dreamed about."

However, the agreement would also mean that Serbia's economy would have to change and adapt – diversifying, in order to produce a wider range of products.

Some critics in Serbia say that the agreement would allow China's economic might to simply overwhelm the Serbian economy, which relies on a population of just 6.6 million people. The government in Belgrade rejects those claims, calling them "political and biased" – while highlighting the fact that the country has a very similar type of agreement with the European Union.

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