Minister Šarović requested exclusion of BiH from decision on introducing quota on steel imports

Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Mirko Šarović sent a letter to the European Commission - Directorate-General for Trade, requesting Bosnia and Herzegovina's exemption from the Implementing Commission Regulation (EU) of 17 July 2018 on the introduction of provisional safeguard measures concerning imports of certain steel products into the European Union.

Pointing out that the provisional measures of the European Commission are imposed without prior analysis of exports to the EU and the impact of such exports on the EU steel industry, Minister Šarović in his letter lists the analyzes that show that exports from our country will not cause damage to the steel industry in the EU member states nor cause serious market disturbances EU.

"Based on the above mentioned key facts related to the imposed measures and the accompanying analysis available in the EU Official Journal, we fully expect the European Commission to undertake every possible effort to find the appropriate modality to exclude Bosnia and Herzegovina from the application of provisional safeguards. We believe that the European Commission, when implementing the procedure for imposing the mentioned measures, failed to consider the possibility that the expected trade diversion could hit EU partners, the Western Balkan countries involved in the stabilization and association process. We believe that the exemption would be justified on the basis of the exemption of Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, and this is the basis of "close economic links of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the EU". In our opinion, the Stabilization and Association Process in its final instance is an even deeper form of the integration process, which, in addition to participating in the EEA, implies EU membership," said Minister Šarović.

“We are convinced that the worst case scenario will be avoided, and that the appropriate modalities will be found in the coming period to exclude Bosnia and Herzegovina from further application of safeguard measures or to prevent negative effects of potential trade diversion for Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said the Minister, noting that BiH is ready to attend the Brussels hearing on the case of protective measures scheduled for September 12, 2018.