IMF-FRY

The mad cows are our chance, Serbian economic chamber president Vlajko Stoiljkovic said on Tuesday, and added that this is an opportunity to fill the gap in beef sales in the European Union and get Serbian exporters back on that market. Serbia did export a lot to the EU and it wants to win back its position, but how and if that will happen depends on a number of things: the number of cattle in Serbia, prices, quality and all the usual things Western markets look for. The basic question is: who would have to do what in the world for Serbia, i.e. Serbian madness to seem more benign.

The current, and most illustrative, example is the clash between Yugoslav National Bank Governor Dragoslav Avramovic and the federal government over the topics and manner of negotiations with a delegation of the International Monetary Foundation in Paris.

The clash flared up publicly last week but the public in Serbia and Montenegro didn't hear of it from the regime media.

The governor said he won't go to Paris with the government's platform which "includes the continuity issue" (of the FRY's membership in the IMF). A day later after a cabinet meeting, the governor told Tanjug news agency that the disputes had been resolved and added that he will head the Yugoslav delegation to the Paris negotiations which will begin with confirmation that the FRY has not rejected a proposal accepted by the Panic government for the FRY to take on 36% of the total debt of the former Yugoslavia. The members of the delegation were not disclosed and it's difficult to assess whether the governor and the government really did smooth out their differences (for example, did the Serbian president's constitutional issues advisor go to Paris, does the delegation include regime experts or neutral experts).

Since the suspension of the sanctions, there have been cases of Yugoslav companies being eliminated from international tenders only because the FRY is not a member of the IMF. Justly or not, that's the way things are and that won't change until the FRY normalizes its relations with the IMF. We know the conditions for that normalization and advocates of the continuity of the FRY in the IMF are just dreaming of inheriting all the property of the former Yugoslavia by offering to pay some creditors in the world debts that haven't fallen due. That is happening while the state is covering the foreign trade deficit of close to 200 million dollars in January and February, and the Serbian prime minister is saying that the deficit is only on paper since exports were paid from bank accounts abroad. We don't know how much money there is in those accounts but experts believe that it can cover the deficit for just two or three months.

But assessments differ. To assess that final outcome, bear in mind that the platform the governor and government clashed over was drawn up while he was in Great Britain and the US. In mid-February, Avramovic sent letters to international monetary institutions, outlining a platform to normalize relations. Perhaps the head of those institutions didn't like a certain part of the letter: "Amid current efforts aimed at stabilizing, adapting and liberalizing and democratizing ownership rights, including privatization and structural reform, we believe we could make use of aid, the experience and advice of international financial institutions, with the Foundation playing a leading role."

What would the advocates and users of state-party ownership over the economy, national currency and population do in that case? What is normal in the rest of the world seems crazy here and right only from their point of view. Seen from the inside, the division is into tax collectors and beasts of burden.