Bosnia’s Council of Ministers adopted the Draft Agreement on Free Trade between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Turkey which improves economic and bilateral relations between the two countries and enables a better inflow of foreign direct investments in Bosnia.

The new agreement changes many things and the most significant novelty is the introduction of preferential treatment for meat from Bosnia. In practice, this means that meat exports that were subject to the payment of full customs duties will now be transferred to the contractual arrangement.

Turkey will publish the approved amounts of unilateral annual duty-free tariff quotas for imports of meat from Bosnia, which will be effective from January 1st each year.  

Further liberalisation in line with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) under the World Trade Organisation will allow Bosnian entrepreneurs access to service and public procurement markets of Turkey, which will result in increased competitiveness and exports of services.

The agreement will also enable a better inflow of foreign direct investments into Bosnia and thus contribute to the development its the economy. Ultimately, it will bring lower prices and better quality of products and it will expand the choice options for consumers, thus impacting consumer savings.  

The Dragt Agreement will be sent to further parliamentary procedure.