This was Sanader's response to independent deputy Slaven Letica who asked the PM if he agreed with President Stjepan Mesic that the international arms embargo in 1991 was good for Croatia.
Sanader said that in early 1990 Croatia was the victim of Greater Serbian aggression and that it needed to defend itself, stressing that the international community made a mistake by imposing an embargo on Croatia.
Sanader disagreed with Zeljko Ledinski of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) that Croatia's joining CEFTA, namely the liberalisation of trade, meant a multiple growth of the import of agricultural products which, according to Ledinski, would destroy Croatian rural areas.
The PM stressed that between joining a Western Balkan free trade zone, as proposed by the European Commission, and CEFTA, Croatia had chosen that CEFTA be expanded to include Southeast European countries and Moldova, adding that the latter was a better option for Croatia's national interests.
Sanader underlined that all CEFTA member countries joined the EU and that they used the trade organisation in the economic sense. He added that he had proposed that Ukraine also joined CEFTA.
It is up to Croatia to make its products as competitive as they can be in all branches of the economy and data according to which exports rose by 25 percent and imports by ten percent in this year's first last seven months show that Croatia is on a right path, he said.
Deficit in the farming sector in the first quarter of this year was reduced by USD57 million, Sanader said, adding that he was aware that the volume of imports was still too high.