The informal Foreign Affairs Council had a meeting in Athens on February 27-28, attended by the Deputy Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Joško Klisovic. One of the main topics of the meeting was the assessment of the priorities of the 9. WTO Ministerial conference held on Bali in December 2013. Special emphasis at the meeting has been put on current talks between EU and US on Transatlantic Agreement on Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The ministers assessed the progress achieved so far and expressed their expectations regarding further developments. This agreement is of crucial importance for both partners because it is supposed to ensure economic growth, employment and contribute to the development of mutual trade relations. The economies of EU and US together make more than half of the world"s GDP as well as one third of the overall world"s trade.
In his intervention the Deputy Minister Klisovic stressed the importance of TTIP agreement for Croatia. He expressed hope that the agreement will contribute to investments and that during the negotiations the issue of American visas for the Croatian citizens will be dealt with because at the moment Croatia is one of only five EU member states which are not included in visa waivering program. He as well stressed the importance of the agreement on avoidance of double taxation between Croatia and US which would facilitate the entry of Croatian companies into the US market. At the same time he argued for the need to conclude the negotiations between the EU and the partners outside Europe with signed preferential agreements as soon as possible, so to extend the same preferential regime to Croatia as the new EU member state.
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