BOSNIAN, CROATIAN OFFICIALS ON TWO COUNTRIES' FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

ZAGREB, Jan 14 (Hina) - The Croatian Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Ministry will by the end of this week forward to the Bosnia-Herzegovina Council of Ministers a list of Croatian agricultural and food products which should be "taken off" the list of products which the Council decided to exclude from the two countries' free trade agreement for three months. The Council adopted the decision in December 2003.#L# This was announced by Croatian Agriculture Minister Petar Cobankovic and Bosnian Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Affairs Dragan Doko after talks in Zagreb on Wednesday. Doko said the Council of Ministers could discuss the issue as early as next week. He added that the duty-free import of those products would start before April 1. Some of those products are fish, fish products and olive oil - the products which do not jeopardise the existence of Bosnian farmers, given that farmers in Bosnia do not produce such kind of goods. The Council of Minister's decision on the three-month postponement in the implementation of free trade with Croatia was aimed at enabling Bosnian farmers and food-processing industry to prepare themselves for the opening of the market to more competitive Croatian products; Doko said. He stressed that the decision referred to only six chapters of the Free Trade Agreement . The Croatia-Bosnian Free Trade agreements will not be amended or revoked, Cobankovic said and added that both countries would try to advance bilateral trade. He added that after Italy, Bosnia was Croatia's most important partner in foreign trade. In the first eleven months of 2003 Croatia exported US814.7 million to Bosnia or 26.3 percent more than in the same period in 2002. At the same time imports from Bosnia rose by 33.7 percent reaching US202.18 million. (Hina) it sb