Minister Košarac: System of Green Priority Lanes for Easier Trade of Vital Products in Function from April 13

BiH Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Staša Košarac said that a system of Green Priority Lanes would be launched in the Western Balkans on Monday, April 13, in order to facilitate the trade of vital products from the Joint List at defined border crossings between CEFTA Parties.

Minister Košarac confirmed that this information was officially announced by the CEFTA Secretariat on Saturday.

''The Green Lanes are open to all goods from the Joint List of vital products. Border crossings in the system of Green Corridors will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, both customs and other border services," said Minister Košarac.

He reminded that at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreaks, he requested 24-hour working hours of veterinary inspectors from the BiH Veterinary Office, which is part of the BiH Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, in order to perform their work in a timely manner and enable unconstrained trade in goods of animal origin.

"As for our side, veterinary inspectors are fully ready to take over this job from Monday," added Minister Košarac.

In order to further ensure the swift flow of the most basic products, the CEFTA Parties, at the suggestion of the CEFTA Secretariat, have adopted a list of vital products, which will have facilitated traffic at defined border crossings between CEFTA Parties.

"The CEFTA list contains the most important products - food for humans and animal feed, while the list of the World Customs Organization has been taken over for the area of ​​medical products, protective equipment and other products necessary in the current situation. Depending on the needs of the CEFTA Parties, this list can be changed and amendment ", explained Minister Košarac.

As he pointed out, the upgraded System of Electronic Exchange of Data (SEED) will be used for pre-announcement of products from the list of vital products.

"The SEED System will send data electronically to customs and other border services," added Minister Košarac, stating that the system will start operating on Monday, while two aspects regarding the pre-announcement will be set during Sunday.

Minister Košarac assessed the beginning of the functioning of the Green Priority Lanes system as extremely important, emphasizing that BiH is ready to adapt to the new conditions in full capacity.

On the other hand, Minister Košarac said that in the first days it is possible to expect certain difficulties with some CEFTA Parties in terms of adaptation to new conditions. Still, he believes the difficulties will be overcome in the next ten days.

 

"Since it is realistic to expect that not everyone will submit their contacts by Monday, the system will work for those crossings as well, but only customs at its terminal will receive pre-announcement notice, so it is possible that coordination with inspections will be less coordinated at priority passages in the first day or two.", said Minister Košarac.

As each CEFTA Party has its own transit information system, and SEED takes data over from these systems, it is expected that errors will occur in the first days of implementation, in the sense that no pre-announcement is registered for priority trucks in transit at some crossings.

"They will then focus on regular lanes, although they have the right to pass through the priority lane," said Minister Košarac.