A Conference entitled “B&H foreign trade policy – starter of development” was held on January 22nd, 2007 in Sarajevo. It was organized by the European Union Project for development of trade policy and capacities in B&H (EUTPP) in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of B&H. The Conference was attended by the representatives of the institutions of BiH, which are directly involved in development and implementation of the foreign trade policy, as well as representatives of the international institutions, scientific organizations and economy. Among the attendees were the representatives of the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office in B&H.
The document “Report on Evaluation of the Needs in the Areas Related with Trade”, was presented at the Conference. It analyzes current state of the B&H foreign trade policy, and gives recommendations for solutions of the problems identified in the report. There was a stress on the necessity of the public administration reform, which would contribute to the solution of some of the problems identified by the Report. Of those problems, one of the most significant is a lack of experts in the institutions.
According to the attendees’ views, it is necessary to implement certain reforms in the area of foreign trade policy so B&H economy could be enabled to fully use the agreements to be signed with the WTO and others, and increase export activities on the markets of the CEFTA member countries and of the European Union.