prijava
BRUSSELS/SARAJEVO, January 30 (FENA) - Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina Staša Košarac spoke on Wednesday in Brussels with European Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan on a number of current political and economic topics.
Košarac informed Hogan that the main priorities of the new convening of the Council of Ministers of BiH and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations are economic development and trade promotion, and that the EU is BiH's most important trade and investment partner.
He stressed that the EU integrations are our country’s top foreign policy priority, which is a unified stance of all levels of government in the country.
Košarac also briefed Hogan on the effort to promote a model of full cooperation and high harmonization between the entity institutions, noting that the Ministry, led by him, has a coordinating role in these processes.
Košarac and Hogan also exchanged views on the safeguards imposed by the EU on imports of certain steel products.
Minister Košarac emphasized that these measures have caused enormous damages to steel producers and exporters in BiH and the Western Balkans region.
He also recalled that the European Commission rejected all complaints and requests from BiH to be exempt from the application of safeguards and to apply the provisions of the Stabilization and Association Agreement to it, since in that case there would be no grounds for imposing safeguards on BiH.
Hogan expressed his understanding of BiH's position, announcing that it would launch the review procedure in February and make a final decision on June 30 this year, instead of June 30, 2021 as it was originally planned.
He suggested that Košarac provides the best possible arguments on behalf of BiH for the exemption from safeguards within the set deadline.
(FENA) S. R.
