This year Croatia marks the 20th anniversary of World Trade Organization (WTO) membership. As the 140th member state, Croatia joined the WTO on 30 November 2000, which was the basis for integrating Croatia’s economy into the global and European market. Croatia’s WTO membership marked a period of additional liberalization, stimulation of Croatia’s export and participation in global trade as a factor of development, while also making the first step towards European and regional economic integration as well as EU membership.
Today, the multilateral trade system is faced with numerous challenges, requiring of all WTO member states to put forth extra effort in order to find new ways to create a more stable rule-based trade environment. Croatia believes that the WTO can provide responses to the key challenges and issues of today, in order to modernize and facilitate conditions for doing business in the 21st century. As a firm and committed supporter of the multilateral system, Croatia sees the WTO as an indispensable and valuable partner.