After attending the final negotiations on the accession of BiH to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH Mirko Sarovic stated that we are very close to the membership in the WTO.
“From two steps on these negotiations yesterday in Geneve, we completed the first step and we are very close to WTO membership. This means that we have finished negotiations on the market access with Ukraine, which is a very important progress. Negotiations with Russia will remain the main obstacle for BiH, with which we have completed just half of the work considering the fact that we have agreed on the rules, or the decision on the quality of liquid petroleum fuels, i.e. the opportunity for Russian companies to sell in BiH and that the fuel is marked as the fuel with higher quality,” noted Minister Sarovic.
He also added that only one tariff line is disputable with Brazil, and it refers to chicken meat. Sarovic noted that he believes that we are very close to the final agreement with Brazil as well.
“If I can share the general impression from the session with more than 50 ambassadors who attended yesterday’s work group, we received the support from all the leading forces,” noted Minister Sarovic.
He noted that the other document that was adopted yesterday, and it is maybe even the most powerful one, is the action plan, or the road map for BiH for the accession to the World Trade Organization.
He explained that, basically, it means that members states of the WTO adopted an action plan that foresees that BiH is admitted into the WTO by the summer of 2018.
According to minister, all remaining negotiations should be finished by the end of March, “since we have finished the legislative part.” This refers to the negotiations with Russia and Brazil.
(Source: akta.ba)
