The European Union's Enlargement Director-General Stefano Sannino has asked the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina to make it possible for Croatia, upon its admission to the EU on 1 July, to continue exporting its goods and services to Bosnia under the current customs-free regime as well as to apply customs-free models to all European Union member-states as a requirement for the liberalisation of the export of some products from Bosnia to the Union's market, the Bosnian government told Croatian news agency Hina on Friday.
According to a source from the government, Sannino's letter to this effect was delivered to Sarajevo earlier this week and the Bosnian government has already responded to it.
"The position of the Bosnian government is that we will absolutely insist on the domestic market's protection, but we are ready to negotiate all outstanding issues," the same source told Hina.
The Bosnian foreign trade ministry's task force will consider Sannino's proposals and will forward its proposals on the matter to the ministerial council next week.
The Sarajevo-based "Oslobodjene" daily on Friday quoted excerpts from the EU official's letter sent to the council's chairman Vjekoslav Bevanda.
According to the daily newspaper, Sannino practically refused Bosnia's request for an additional protocol to a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) which would introduce customs duties on Croatia's products imported to Bosnia upon Zagreb's departure from the Central European Free Trade Agreement, on 1 July.
The daily interprets it as a demand for Bosnia's practical capitulation in the negotiations on trade relations. In return, the EU seems willing to allow additional quotas for the import of sugar, fish and wine from Bosnia to EU member-states.
Sannino also reminds Bevanda that since 2008, the SAA has provided for an asymmetrical preferential regime with Bosnia to the benefit of that country, as Sarajevo has retained customs duties on a majority of agricultural produce from the EU.
Sannino conveyed to the Bosnian premier EU members' concern over Bosnia's lack of readiness to negotiate this issue.
