SARAJEVO – Adjusted Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Union (EU) enters into force today .
The Agreement was signed last year. It implies regulation of relations in trade of agricultural products between BiH and the EU.
According to the Agreement, producers from BiH benefit again from trade benefits on certain agricultural products, including fruits and vegetables. This means that BiH producers will be able to export those products to the EU without any EU specific duties, making them more competitive on the EU market.
This is due to the provisional application, from the same date, of the Protocol on the adaptation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between the EU and BiH to take into account the accession of Croatia to the European Union, signed on 15 December 2016 in Brussels.
Domestic agricultural producers, mainly dairy farmers, however, have been warning for a long time that this will have negative impact on domestic agricultural production.
The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, however, consideres that the Adjusted SAA has different impact on certain sectors of production.