Nezavisne novine: The House of Peoples of the Parliament of BiH has in first reading adopted the Law on protection of domestic production, by which the customs are being introduced on meat and milk and their products from Serbia and Croatia. Application of this law will start after it gets adopted in its second reading.
"It is necessary to start with collecting the full customs on this group of agricultural products, because of obvious failing in the area of market. The CEFTA agreement gives us the possibility of having a right on protective measures (in the case of market failing due to excessive imports). I think this will bring around 500 million KM into the BiH budgets, and a part of it we can return to agriculturists through stimulations", has been said by Jerko Ivanković-Lijanović, proposer of this law, which has previously been adopted in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of BiH.
Minister of External Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Mladen Zirojević has invited the delegates to refuse this law, because its adoption will cause some contra-measures of Croatia and Serbia, which is not good for BiH.
"It is indisputable that this law violates the CEFTA and the Stabilization and Association Agreement. It is interesting that by these changes there have been encompassed the products, which are no longer being imported from these two countries. This is not a good solution for BiH and the reaction of the High Representative, if the law gets adopted, is certain", Zirojević has said.
The Law on Domestic Production Protection has been supported in its first reading by the delegates of Bosniak and Serbian nation. Croatian delegates were against it.
"International agreements are above domestic legislation; therefore the constitutional basis of this law is problematic as well. It should especially be pointed out that the European Commission has urged that it should come to the adoption of this law because it is opposite to the International agreement", has been said by Ilija Filipović, chairman of the House of Peoples of the Parliament of BiH.
Deputy Chairwoman, Dušanka Majkić has pointed out that the neighboring countries do not respect the principle of open borders by introducing the non-custom barriers.
"I think that this law should be supported, because we currently do not have other possibilities to protect domestic production", Majkić has said. The House of Peoples has also adopted the changes of the Law on Custom Tariffs, which enables the custom-less import of 50.000 tons of processing sugar.