SARAJEVO, June 1 (Hina) - Negotiations on an agreement on trade cooperation between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are currently at a standstill, due to a failure of Bosnian Ministerial Council to function. The issue, however, can be
solved by the end of this year, announced Seadeta Ceric, an assistant to Bosnia's Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Minister. Speaking at a business conference on the economic ties between Sarajevo and Zagreb, organised by Bosnia's Chamber of Commerce, Ceric on Thursday said both Bosnia and Croatia had the same orientation towards the establishment of a regime of free trade but there were certain differences in stands on the time framework in which this regime should be implemented. "Our stand is that a trade cooperation agreement should come into effect in January 2001, and the regime of the totally free trade can be
SARAJEVO, June 1 (Hina) - Negotiations on an agreement on trade
cooperation between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are currently
at a standstill, due to a failure of Bosnian Ministerial Council to
function.
The issue, however, can be solved by the end of this year, announced
Seadeta Ceric, an assistant to Bosnia's Foreign Trade and Economic
Relations Minister.
Speaking at a business conference on the economic ties between
Sarajevo and Zagreb, organised by Bosnia's Chamber of Commerce,
Ceric on Thursday said both Bosnia and Croatia had the same
orientation towards the establishment of a regime of free trade but
there were certain differences in stands on the time framework in
which this regime should be implemented.
"Our stand is that a trade cooperation agreement should come into
effect in January 2001, and the regime of the totally free trade can
be introduced gradually by 2006," Ceric said.
She assessed that it was in the interest of both parties to achieve a
very good trade agreement. The trade between the two neighbouring
countries was continuously falling in the past four years and this
is a quite unnatural as regards the fact that Croatia and Bosnia are
directed towards each other in every respect, she added.
Bosnia's Ambassador to Croatia, Hasan Muratovic, addressed the
Sarajevo conference which drew over 200 businessmen and experts in
economics.
Ambassador Muratovic asserted that a decrease in the volume of the
commodity exchange had assumed "disastrous dimensions" and
advocated that comprehensive measures be taken to discontinue such
a trend.
Companies must now find their own ways, while the paper work only
causes trouble for them, Muratovic said while describing the
current state of affairs in the economic ties between Zagreb and
Sarajevo.
For him it is incredible that the two countries do not deal with
economic issues in their relations in a systematic manner. He was in
favour of an inter-state body that should permanently tackle the
matter.
Muratovic criticised Bosnian businessmen for their bad approach to
foreign markets. He cited an example of Bosnia's lack of efforts to
support plans for being a country-partner to Croatia at the
international autumn fair in Zagreb.
The Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) head, Nadan Vidosevic,
recalled that his country's economy was now in a difficult
position, but he assessed the problems Croatia was faced with were
smaller than Bosnian problems.
Vidosevic reiterated that the furtherance of the bilateral
cooperation would be of the very great importance for Croatian
firms that have a market in Bosnia.
He said Croatia was ready to take an active part in bids to conclude
the deal on trade, as a precondition for other steps in the recovery
of economic activities of the two countries.
(hina) jn ms