Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Delegation won’t accept EU’s suggestion in relation to upholding the model of “traditional trade” at an early meeting in Brussels between the Interim Committee of BH and the European Commission.
Director of the Directorate for European Integration BH, Nevenka Savic, confirmed that the early meeting of the Interim Committee to be held in Brussels should focus on the elimination of the deadlock in negotiations for the conclusion of protocol and the interim agreement on trade and trade related matters between the European community and BH.
BH’s Delegation will represent the views of BH in accordance with the decision reached by the Council of Ministers to not accept the so called traditional trade and the methodologies of the EU.
The position that the EU holds is that the concessions that Croatia had towards the CEFTA agreement until the 1st of July should be mirrored in the Stabilization and Association Agreement, in other words in the Interim Agreement, the concessions will then apply to all other member states.
With that in mind BH is firmly protecting its position. Savic, who is also chairman of the multi-member delegation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, stated that BH is ready for negotiations but not under the conditions set by the EU and that BH expected to receive word of the legal position held by the European Commission before the Brussels meeting, which did not occur.
The European Commission in this process previously relied on an article related to certain ambiguities in the agreement, according to which BH’s views on the concept of “traditional trade” are not accepted. Representative of BH claim all along that this term is unacceptable, since it is not mentioned in the agreement.
If the two sides do not reach an agreement, the process of international arbitration can be expected.