Bosnia’s Foreign Trade Minister Mirko Sarovic sent a letter to the European Commission’s General Trade Directorate, requesting Bosnia’s exemption from the Regulation on the introduction of provisional safeguard measures in connection with imports of certain steel products into the EU.

Minister Sarovic said in his letter that analyzes show that exports from Bosnia and Herzegovina will not cause damage to EU’s steel industry, nor will they cause serious disturbances in the EU market.

“Based on all the stated facts concerning these measures, as well as the accompanying analysis available in the EU’s Official Gazette, we expect the European Commission to take every possible step to find an appropriate model to exclude Bosnia from the application of provisional safeguard measures,” Sarovic stressed. “We believe that, when implementing the procedure for imposing the aforementioned measures, the European Commission failed to consider the possibility that the expected trade diversion could affect EU partners, the countries of the Western Balkans involved in the stabilization and association process.”

The Minister also added that Bosnia is ready to attend the Brussels hearing, which is scheduled for September 12, 2018, on the case of safeguard measures.