ANKARA (AA) - Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia have agreed to expand the coverage of their current free trade agreement (FTA), Turkey's Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said Wednesday.
Speaking in Istanbul at the opening of the third trilateral trade committee between the countries, Zebekci said they aim to finalize expansion of current free trade pacts by 2017.
"We discussed the expansion of FTAs to a maximum extent possible. The scope of free trade agreements between Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia is narrow for us. Expanding these agreements and increasing Turkish investments in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina is very important," Zeybekci said.
"We agreed to realize this goal as soon as possible. If possible we want to finalize it by 2017," he added.
Stressing the importance of trade and investment ties for cooperation in all other areas between the countries, Zeybekci said relations between those states will reflect trade and investment ties.
On the official opening in Istanbul of a common trade office of the three countries Wednesday, Zeybekci said beside its symbolic value, he believes the new office will play an active role in boosting ties.
For his part, Bosnia-Herzegovina Foreign Trade Minister Mirko Sarovic said trilateral trade relations between the countries are very important and updating free trade agreements will help strengthen trade ties.
"The trade volume between the countries has reached $600 million annually, and we’re raising the bar to $1 billion for the coming years," Sarovic said.
Rasim Ljajic, Serbia’s foreign and domestic trade and telecommunications minister, said a trade office would reflect the cooperation between the three countries.
"This [new trade office] and updating the free trade agreement will be very beneficial in developing trade ties and tourism," Ljajic said.