With the support of the European Commission

1

WTO: The membership negotiations and the occurred problems

Emir Djikic

Tirana, October 21st 2005

With the support of the European Commission

With the support of the European Commission 2

Start of the Process

• May 18th 1999 BiH Presidency made the decision to start Accession process to WTO

• May 1999 Official submission is made to the WTO Secretariat

• July 15th 1999 BiH obtained the Observer status to the WTO and the Working Party is established

• WP Chairman is H.E. P.R. Jenkins

With the support of the European Commission 3

Real Work starting

• Formulation of the Negotiation Team• Narrow Team and Broad Team established• Preparation of the Foreign Trade Memorandum• Memorandum Submitted in September 2002 to

WTO Secretariat with 30 relevant laws• Problems in gathering data, lack of data, HR

capacities in the Governments

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Clarification process

• 3 Rounds of questions- First round 326 questions- Second round 110 questions- Third round 84 questions

Submission of the additional documentation: Legislative action plan, Domestic support, Services TRIPS, SPS/TBT

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Offers

• BiH Prepared offers in goods and services and submitted them to the WTO Secretariat in October 2004.

• 2 WP meetings until now

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7 November 20036 December 2004

Meetings of the Working Party

5.

5 September 20035 November 2003

Questions and Replies4.

10 October 2002Memorandum3.

Chairperson: Mr. P.R. Jenkins (United Kingdom)

15 July 1999Working Party Established2.

11 May 1999Application Received1.

Key dates

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 Draft Working Party Report9.

 Factual Summary8.

14 October 2004Services Offer

15 October 2004Goods Offer

Market Access Negotiations7.

14 October 2004(f) Legislative Action Plan

5 September 2003(e) TRIPS (WT/ACC/9)

5 September 2003(d) SPS/TBT (WT/ACC/8)

5 September 2003(c) Services (WT/ACC/5)

17 September 2003(b) Agriculture (WT/ACC/4)

14 October 2004(a) Additional Questions & Replies

Other Documentation6.

Key dates

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Sectoral Priorities

16 initiatives• Zero for zero and harmonization requirements • Agricultural equipment, beer, Civil Aircrafts, Construction

equipment, Distilled alcohol, Fish and fish products, Furniture, IT, Medical equipment, Metals – excluding iron, oilseeds, pharmaceuticals, Steel, paper and Scientific equipment (Zero for Zero)

• Chemical industry (Harmonization on 6,5-5,5%)

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Example – Harmonization in the Chemical Industry

HS Chapter:28 5,5 % 3,2• 2901-02 0 % 4,22903-15 5,5 % 1,22916-42 6,5 % 0,8 • 30 0 % 2,831 6,5 % 2,7532 6,5 % 4,57

33 6,5 % 5,45• 34 6,5 % 7,9235 6,5 % 4,7236 6,5 % 4,5437 6,5 % 6,3738 6,5 % 2,74• 39 6,5 % 7,43

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Applied Custom Tariff – basis for negotiations

• Average ad valorem tariff is 6,4%• Agriculture (HS 1-24 excluding fish 3) 5,26% +

specific duty for 851 product• Low tariff should provide to BiH not difficult

accession negotiations

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Domestic support

• Insignificant support in the base period (2000-2002)

• Preparations of new base period (2002-2004)

• No export subsidies (no commitment either)

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Services

• Liberalized services sectors

• Problem with audiovisual services (US – EU)

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TRIPS

• Legislation in preparation

• Conventions in process of signature

• Main problem is implementation

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Problems

• Most of exports and imports with FTA and EU countries (cca. 90%)

• More of problems in the disciplines implementation then in trade

• Not enough capacities to cover all WTO areas• Lack of coordination• Parallel process of WTO Accession and SAA

Negotiations and unification of the processes• Potential loss of revenues

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MAIN PROBLEM

SELL IT HOME

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION