The Free Trade Agreement Draft established

The Council of Ministers of BiH has established the Proposal of the Free Trade Agreement between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Turkey, by which two countries strengthen economic and trade relations and promote overall bilateral co-operation.

An important novelty of the contract is the introduction of preferential treatment for meat from BiH, as a contractual provision. This practically means that the export of meat from the groups that until now had to pay full customs duties will be transferred to a contractual arrangement. Turkey will publish the approved amounts of unilateral annual duty free tariff quotas for imports of meat originating in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will be effective from 1 January every year.

"What is most important in relation to earlier solutions is that for the first time the contract includes a provision with regard to Turkey's obligation to provide Bosnia and Herzegovina with a meat export quota for Turkey for every year, as beef and other types of meat have so far been at full customs duty, without any reduction, with the Turkish government approving a certain amount every year by a unilateral decision, "Minister Šarović explained after the session.

Noting that for the first time we have a free trade agreement, the Minister added that the other two key changes to the contract relate to access to the service market and access to public procurement.

 "Public procurement and the market of services are, according to the BiH legislation, liberal because we have European legislation, but access to the Turkish market was closed. With this agreement, we have enabled this market to open for us, which is a good result of negotiations that lasted two years. "

The proposal of the contract will be submitted to the BiH Presidency for further procedure