SARAJEVO, March 22 (Hina) - Around 1,000 farmers rallied on Monday in front of the Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo while the parliament was in session, urging protection for domestic food industry and an extension of
protectionist measures.
SARAJEVO, March 22 (Hina) - Around 1,000 farmers rallied on Monday in
front of the Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo while the
parliament was in session, urging protection for domestic food
industry and an extension of protectionist measures.#L#
The protest was organised by the Association of Farmers of
Bosnia-Herzegovina and some trade unions, with protesters placing
several tractors and a truck with live cattle in the city's central
square.
The farmers' leader, Ranko Bakic, presented 14 requests for the
country's and entity governments, the most important one being the
suspension of agreements on free trade with neighbouring countries
until the end of the year and the provision of at least 100 million
euro-worth subsidies for farmers to boost the country's agricultural
production and food processing.
At the end of 2003, the Council of Ministers - the country's
government - passed a decision at farmers' request to postpone for
three months the application of free trade agreements with Croatia and
Serbia and Montenegro. The agreements envisaged the cancellation of
all customs duties for food imports on 1 January 2004.
The government's decision was prompted by fears that the full opening
of borders to duty-free food imports would destroy domestic food
production.
The farmers have said that they will block all major roads, border
crossings and state institutions in the country on April 1 if their
requests are not met.
Prime Minister Adnan Terzic met the protesters for talks behind closed
doors today, but it is not known if the talks resulted in any concrete
promises.
Because of the talks Terzic was late for the plenary session of both
parliamentary chambers at which he introduced a medium-term
development strategy.
The document, which was adopted by the Council of Ministers in
February, envisages measures which should result in achieving pre-war
living standards in the country by 2009.
Macroeconomic experts believe that this requires achieving an average
GDP growth of five percent, keeping inflation at the present low level
with a maximum rise of 2.2 percent, significantly increasing the role
of the private sector in domestic production, and creating conditions
for major foreign investments.
In his address to the deputies, Terzic warned that the strategy would
depend on the continuation of international financial assistance,
which should amount to at least 1.5 billion dollars by 2007, as the
country would not be able to start seeking any major loans before
2008.
Terzic believes that the biggest threat to the stabilisation of the
country's economy is a poverty rate of almost 20 percent and a 40
percent unemployment rate, a combination which could generate serious
social unrest.
(Hina) rml