Blossoming Montenegro - Emerging Real Estate

Blossoming Montenegro

06/12/2011

 Blossoming Montenegro

Further good news came out of Montenegro this week with the announcement that the country is to become a ‘de-facto’ member of the World Trade Organisation. Government economy minister Vladimir Kavaric has indicated that Montenegro has met all the requirements needed to join the WTO and will be formally confirmed at the ministerial conference in Geneva later this month.

Although Montenegro applied for WTO membership in December 2004 and was expected to join the WTO in February 2009, Ukraine delayed its accession by submitting additional requests. During this period, Montenegro acted proactively by signing market access bilateral agreements with the EU, the USA, China, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Salvador and El Honduras. And after almost three years of negotiations, Montenegro closed the bilateral negotiations with Ukraine on 18 November 2011 allowing them to take the final steps to membership.

Andrej Logar, who worked to facilitate the entry for Montenegro believes this to be a new beginning for the country - “Montenegro’s accession to the WTO is of great significance from the standpoint of its EU membership aspirations since only as a WTO member state can it seriously start thinking of opening negotiations with the EU. This is important in the terms of some broader political processes in Montenegro, in particular in terms of Government’s European and Euro-Atlantic bid which is supported by the international community. This is essentially the most important contribution of Montenegro’s accession to the WTO.”

 Membership of the WTO is one of the key steps which clearly demonstrate the country’s efforts made towards more modern international economic partnerships. The membership also sends a positive signal that Montenegro respects internationally accepted rules, therefore providing an additional incentive for attracting foreign investors.

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