SARAJEVO, April 12 (Hina) - The chairman of Bosnian Council of Ministers, Adnan Terzic, has announced that his government might think of reducing import tariffs paid for the food from the European Union countries in order to annul "a
monopoly which Croatia has on the market of Bosnia-Herzegovina".
SARAJEVO, April 12 (Hina) - The chairman of Bosnian Council of
Ministers, Adnan Terzic, has announced that his government might think
of reducing import tariffs paid for the food from the European Union
countries in order to annul "a monopoly which Croatia has on the
market of Bosnia-Herzegovina".#L#
Terzic, who gave an interview to Monday's issue of the local 'Dnevni
Avaz' daily, said that since 1 April when the Bosnian-Croatian free
trade agreement took effect, "Croatia has been given the monopolistic
position in Bosnia". In this context he cited the example of the
poultry industry to corroborate his statement.
Before the agreement's enforcement, Croatia paid only 40 percent of
tariffs which EU members had to pay to export goods into Bosnia, and
with the application of the bilateral free trade deal Croatia has been
exempt from paying event that low tariff.
"Croatia is beginning to hold an absolute monopoly on the Bosnian
market and our efforts to retain those tariffs of 40 percent were
futile. Now we seriously think of reducing the tariffs which EU
countries pay so as to open the Bosnian market for high-quality
products from Europe. Let Croatia race with them (on our market)," the
Bosnian prime minister said.
Terzic also criticised Croatia for imposing administrative hurdles so
as to make it impossible for Bosnia to export its food products to the
market of the neighbouring country. In this context he said that
Bosnian "small lorries" transporting agricultural produce were waiting
for days at the border to enter Croatia while at the same time trailer
trucks were passing from Croatia into Bosnia.
Terzic admitted that the Bosnian side was also partly accountable for
this situation as its national Office for Veterinary Services had
begun functioning only three months ago.
One of the first measures imposed by this office was the ban on import
of products from Croatia's 'Vidnija' factory as this food-processing
company had no plant with licences for the export in the EU zone. The
same rule, however, applies for the import of Bosnian food in Croatia,
but the problem lies in the fact that no Bosnian food-processing plant
has relevant EU licences.
(Hina) ms