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Macedonia's foreign trade balance has been in deficit since 1994, and is expected to widen in 2004 to an estimated $745 million, or 14.9% of GDP. Total 2003 trade was $3.66 billion, or 79.5% of GDP--imports plus exports of goods and services. Macedonia's major trading partners are Serbia and Montenegro, Germany, and Greece. The United States is Macedonia's seventh-largest trading partner. In 2003, U.S.-Macedonia trade in goods totaled $129.1 million. According to Macedonian trade data, U.S. exports accounted for 2.4% of Macedonia's total imports. U.S. meat, mainly poultry, and electrical machinery have been particularly attractive to Macedonian importers. Principal Macedonian exports to the United States are tobacco, apparel, footwear, and iron and steel.
Macedonia has signed Free Trade Agreements with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Slovenia, Turkey, and the European Free Trade Association countries, and is currently in the early stages of negotiating an agreement with Kosovo.
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