SARAJEVO, May 18 (Hina) - Trade associations of timber and wood industry's companies within the chambers of commerce of Bosnia-Herzegovina's two entities insist on the immediate discontinuation or the drastic restriction in the export
of logs and sawn timber.
SARAJEVO, May 18 (Hina) - Trade associations of timber and wood
industry's companies within the chambers of commerce of Bosnia-
Herzegovina's two entities insist on the immediate discontinuation
or the drastic restriction in the export of logs and sawn timber.
#L#
Businessmen from this sector insist on such measures in order to
prevent the collapse of the wood and timber industry in Bosnia,
which seems imminent.
Last week, the leader of the said trade association within the
Croat-Muslim Federation's chamber of commerce, Jago Cavara, said
the export of logs on a mass scale from Bosnia since the end of the
war had almost destroyed domestic manufacturers in the wood-
processing sector. At the same time, these sectors in Slovenia,
Austria and Italy based their success on the import of the raw
material from Bosnia without any restrictions.
Cavara added that the wood and timber industry in Bosnia had
registered a surplus in trade in 2002, but this success should be
ascribed to the export of logs and sawn timber.
Furniture manufacturers in Bosnia are faced with huge problems, as
they have to import some sorts of hardboards, given that not any of
pre-war manufacturers of this kind of material has been active in
the country.
"If nothing is done soon, local saw-mills will have nothing to saw
in one year's time," said Enver Soskic, the assistant of the
managing director of a Sarajevo factory for the production of
furniture.
Cavara and Soskic said that in 2002 a temporary ban on the export of
logs had been prepared but the outgoing government at the time said
it could not adopt such a decision at the very end of its term of
office, while the new composition of the Council of Ministers
refused to adopt the ban with an explanation that it was contrary to
rules on free trade.
The two added that they did not insist on an absolute ban on the
export but that companies from the wood-processing sector only
asked for measures which would ensure supplies for their
activities.
(hina) ms