Bosnia Eyes WTO Membership in 2015

The President of the the Bosnian parliament's commission for foreign trade and customs, Semsudin Mehmedovic, told Balkan Insight that Bosnia is in the final phase of preparing to join the World Trade Organization, WTO, which will bring benefits in international trade.

"For Bosnia and Herzegovina to become a member state, it has to reach bilateral agreements with two more countries," he said. While declining to name these countries, he added: "I expect our team to close this up until the end of the year."

Mehmedovic said membership of the WTO would send a message to foreign investors that there is order and legal security in Bosnia and their money would be safe.

"The market to which Bosnia and Herzegovina would sell its products would be expanded. We are a country that imports a lot from overseas countries," he said, "We have products to offer them, too. Bosnia and Herzegovina has this potential."

Bosnia currently has "observer" status in the WTO. It applied for membership in 1999 and presented its memorandum covering all aspects of its trade and legal regime in 2002.

So far, 12 meetings of the Working Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina have taken place while the country has concluded bilateral negotiations with all but two member states.

Duljko Hasic, an economist from the Bosnian Foreign Trade Chamber, told Balkan Insight that WTO membership would open up new trade possibilities as well as improving chances of eventual membership of the European Union.

"It would mean a lot in terms of global trade exchange. It would represent a good move for Bosnia and Herzegovina's economy," he said, noting that the country needed to fulfill all conditions for export under current agreements, such as the Central European Free Trade...