Delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH in Buenos Aires participated in the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO and attended the opening of the 11th Ministerial Conference of the WTO

By adopting a final document in which parliamentarians from around the world appeal for the preservation of the principle of free trade under rules equal to rich and poor countries, a Parliamentary Conference on the World Trade Organization (WTO) was concluded in Buenos Aires, in which participated the delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (PA BiH), consist of the Chairman of the House of Peoples of the PA BiH Ognjen Tadić, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Trade and Customs of the House of Representatives of PA BiH, Šemsudin Mehmedović, and the Chairman of the Committee on Finance and Budge of the House of Representatives of PA BiH Predrag Kožul.

In the final document of the Conference, which was jointly organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the European Parliament, some 250 parliamentarians from more than 60 countries and international parliamentary organizations strongly supported multilateralism as a mechanism for monitoring and controlling the activities of WTO and stressed that free trade should be a chance for economic development and progress, not a threat, as many countries in the world experience at the moment.

The participants of the parliamentary conference on WTO in Buenos Aires sent the message that dialogue and joint activities on issues such as food security, environment protection, equal opportunities for women and youth, as well as revolutionary technologically progress, which is not easy to follow for all countries, represents the best way for resolving the political and economic crisis, as well as large trade disputes that shakes the present.

At the end of the Parliamentary Conference, members of the PA BiH Delegation also attended the inaugural session, at which the 11th Ministerial Conference of the WTO was opened in Buenos Aires, the most important annual meeting of this international organization, which has more than 160 member countries.

Following the opening of the 11th Ministerial Conference of the WTO, the members of the PA BiH Delegation had a meeting with the Chairman of the WTO Working Group for Negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ambassador Atanas Atanassov Paparizov, with whom they exchanged information on the state of negotiations of our country for full membership in the WTO.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is in the final stage of negotiations for WTO membership. Negotiations are still in progress with Brazil, Ukraine and Russia, after which there will not be obstacles for Bosnia and Herzegovina to be admitted to full membership of the WTO. (end)