The Working Party Chair, Ambassador István Major (Hungary), stated that this 9th meeting of the Working Party marked another substantive step on the way to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s WTO membership. He noted that this accession continued to move forward.

Members reviewed the draft Working Party report (revised version 3) containing the reforms undertaken by Bosnia and Herzegovina to its trade regime. They requested clarifications on issues related to trading rights, anti-dumping and countervailing duties, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, free zones, agriculture, and intellectual property rights.

The draft Working Party report will be revised for the next meeting to take into account today’s discussions and additional information provided by Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Members also evaluated the progress made in the on-going bilateral negotiations on market access for goods and services. The Working Party Chair said that 3 bilateral negotiations have been concluded, and 3 or 4 agreements were in the pipeline. The Chair urged Bosnia and Herzegovina to very actively conclude more bilateral agreements in the near future. Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently negotiating with more than 10 Members.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Chief accession negotiator and Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic relations, Hamdo Tinjak said that Bosnia and Herzegovina was steadily completing the remaining accession tasks and approaching the final goal.

Background information on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s accession:

• Last Working Party meeting: 25 January 2011
• Working Party Chairperson: István Major (Hungary)
• Working Party established: July 1999

Latest revision of Working Party report: 15 June 2011