Yesterday at the session of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, in response to a parliamentary question of Mensur Beganovic (Democratic Front), Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Mirko Sarovic said that the negotiations for membership of BiH to the World Trade Organization (WTO) are in the final stage and that the greatest progress was made in 2013.
Minister Sarovic stated that so far was held 12 rounds of conversations in total and that “BiH was classified as a priority country for membership in the World Trade Organization”.
“However, I have to emphasize that the negotiations for access joined the Russian Federation in mid-2015 with the very extensive requirements in terms of required tax concessions and access to market services, which further aggravated completion of negotiations, due to the fact that within the bilateral negotiations we have not finished negotiations with Ukraine, Brazil and the United States,” said Minister Sarovic.
According to him, the Russian Federation and Ukraine insisted at very broad requirements within the framework of bilateral negotiations, which are far beyond the interests and capabilities of their economies.
“On the other hand, from BiH is requested the full opening of the market, which in practice means the full opening of the market for all WTO members,” said Sarovic.
He announced that the next Ministerial Conference in Argentina, which is held every two years, is scheduled in December 2017, and it is practice to receive new members in this organization during this conference.
“At the moment, in the Secretariat of the WTO, BiH represents one of the most serious members for joining this organization,” said Sarovic.
(Source: ekapija.com)
