Deputy Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Joško Klisović attended an informal meeting of EU Foreign Affairs Council held 27 and 28 February in Athens. The main topics of the meeting of trade ministers concerned the marks and priorities of the last year’s Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali. Special emphasis was placed on the current EU-US talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The ministers evaluated the progress thus far and expressed expectations for the future. They underlined the importance of the transparency of the talks and availability of information, and called for a campaign to familiarize the public with the importance of this agreement.
In his address, Klisović stressed the importance of TTIP for Croatia, saying he was hopeful the agreement would spur investment and that the talks would touch on the issue of visas as well, which is important for Croatia since Croatia along with four other EU members is not involved in the visa-free travel regime. He also mentioned the US-Croatia Agreement on the Avoidance of Double Taxation, which would facilitate doing business on the US market for Croatian companies. In the end, Klisović called for the talks the European Commission is holding with extra-European partners to be concluded as soon as possible in order to take into account Croatia’s EU membership, given that Croatia still lacks access to all of those markets.