After officially approving the poultry meat export for Bosnia, the European Union will hopefully give a green light for export of processed poultry meat this week, Bosnia's Foreign Trade Minister Mirko Sarovic said in N1's programme.

“The European Commission published a decision in its Official Journal on Friday, listing Bosnia and Herzegovina among the countries that are allowed to export the poultry meat. A competent body will discuss today (the export of) the processed poultry meat. I believe we will get a good news tomorrow or the day after tomorrow again,” said Sarovic speaking for N1's Novi dan.

A month ago, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations confirmed that Bosnia was approved the poultry meat export to the European Union and that the State Veterinary Office would prepare a list of companies that will export their products.

Followed the comprehensive analyses from September 26 to October 6 last year, an EU's competent team gave a positive opinion for the poultry team export.

Speaking about the 100 percent import tariffs that Kosovo introduced for the products from Bosnia and Serbia last November, Sarovic warned that the taxes had no grounds in the customs-free CEFTA agreement, which all the countries in the region signed.

“This is primarily a problem in Serbia-Kosovo relations, and Bosnia and Herzegovina was hit by these measures. The damage is immense. We tried to make progress in bilateral talks but without a result. It is obviously a political decision,” said the minister, commenting on the decision that Pristina authorities introduced a day after Bosnia's and Serbia's representatives failed to support Kosovo's membership in the Interpol. This was, however, never cited as an official reason to introduce the measures.

“The outcome will most probably depend on pressures from the US and European Commission. We don't want to introduce countermeasures because we wouldn't get anything and would lose in a political context,” he added.

As for Bosnia's membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Sarovic said this depended on Russia, which demands Bosnia to pass a new decision on liquid petroleum gas.

“We are both far and close (to the membership). The ministry did its part of work, only the negotiations with Russia remain and that's the key obstacle,” said Sarovic pointing out that this decision lies on Bosnia's semi-autonomous entities and its competent bodies.

“We are so close, the problem is probably in the fact that the decision makers in the country don't see the significance (of the membership),” he added.