MACEDONIA TEMPORARILY BANS PETROL IMPORT FROM CROATIA

( Editorial: --> 1236 ) SKOPJE, Feb 11 (Hina) - A joint Macedonian-Croatia Commission for the implementation of the agreement on free trade between the two countries held talks in Skopje on Wednesday to discuss the recent decision of the Macedonian government on the temporary ban on the import of petrol from Croatia. Deputy Economy Minister, Blagoj Petrusevski, said the Macedonian government would be forced to apply Article 26 and 30 from the Agreement, which stipulated that a ban can be imposed on a product if there is too much of that product on the market, which was what happened with oil and oil products in Macedonia. He added that the closing of the Macedonian oil refinery would be a real catastrophe for Macedonia. Assistant Croatian Economy Minister, Neven Mimica, who is heading the Croatian delegation, expressed disagreement with the measure undertaken by the Macedonian government, especially because it had been reached without the Croatian side being consulted. The two delegations requested that a meeting between Croatian and Macedonian oil companies be held in a month at the latest, so they could agree on further cooperation based on the Free Trade Agreement. (hina) lm mm 112051 MET feb 98