prijava
SARAJEVO, August 1 (FENA) - The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina has established a draft of the Free Trade Agreement with Turkey, said today at a press conference Deputy Chairman of the Council and Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Mirko Šarović.
“After the discussion, we have established a draft agreement with a report on completed negotiations that lasted two years, and we sent it to the BiH Presidency for a final say,” Šarović told reporters.
He noted that this is an international treaty, and that it was part of the obligations of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations.
Šarović stressed that this agreement is very important because it has been improved and it is better than the previous free trade agreement that has been changed on three occasions.
“What the most important thing is in relation to earlier solutions, is that is for the first time we have in the agreement a provision concerning the obligation of Turkey to provide Bosnia and Herzegovina with an annual quota for meat exports to Turkey, since beef and other types of meat have so far been at full customs duties without any reduction, with the Turkish government approving a certain quota every year. Now, for the first time we have it incorporated in the free trade agreement,” explained Šarović.
He also stated that the other two key changes relate to access to the services market and access to public procurement.
“Public procurement and services market are, under the BiH legislation, liberalized because we have European legislation, but access to the Turkish market was closed and with this agreement we are enabling its opening for BiH businesses, which comes as a good result of negotiations that lasted two years,” said Šarović.
(FENA) S. R.
