June 5, 2000
Croatia has received written confirmation from World Trade Organization negotiators that there were no more obstacles to its admission to the organization, the economy ministry spokeswoman said on Monday.
Croatia's admission to the WTO had been politically blocked during its years of nationalist government and it had also been caught between opposing American and French views on the liberalization of trade in audio and visual material.
"An agreement was reached for Croatia to be admitted in accordance with the so called 'Baltic formula'," Astrid Musura-Kaucic told Reuters.
She said that under that formula, Croatia would be granted the same rights in protecting national cultural tradition and identity as other European countries.
"This is the best deal under the circumstances," Musura-Kaucic said. Croatia asked the organization's ruling General Council to hold an extraordinary session to approve its admission before its own parliament breaks for the summer.
Croatia's parliament is discussing a package of changes on custom duties, which should put tariffs in line with WTO standards.
After admission to NATO's Partnership for Peace program last month, it is the latest in a series of foreign policy successes for the center-left government of Ivica Racan, whose coalition took over from nationalist HDZ earlier this year.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
