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stTrade Policy Review of Croatia
March 26th, 2010
Statement by the Republic of Korea for Day 2
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, since my delegation did not take the floor on the first day, I would like to take this opportunity to first express my delegation’s belated words of welcome to the delegation of Croatia for its first, and quite possibly, their last trade policy review to be held on an individual basis in this house.
In particular, our words of appreciation goes to H.E. Minister Popijac and his team for their hard work in preparing the detailed opening remarks delivered on the first day, the thorough responses presented this morning, and the detailed written responses to advanced questions submitted by members.
Mr. Chairman,
With regards to the answers to the advanced written questions, my delegation has carefully reviewed the written responses presented by Croatia, and we would like to say that we were pleasantly surprised at the level of detail provided on each of the responses. We noticed that a lot of hard work has been put into the responses, and in this context, we take this opportunity to thank them for their efforts.
Mr. Chairman, on a couple of questions, however, we wonder if we could request for some more information from our Croatian friends.
1) On page 81 of the 1st day replies, specifically Q3, we wonder if Croatia could be a little more specific with regards to the criteria used by the relevant authorities to screen request for approvals. In this context, we wonder if they could provide, in their revised final written answers, an English translation of the relevant sections of “Ordinance on Licenses for Carrying out energy activities (OG 107/09), Act on conditions for representation in customs proceedings (OG 92/01), and relevant sections of OG 110/07 and OG 7/97.
2) On page 83, specifically Q5, we wonder if Croatia could further elaborate on the expected level of state aid to be disbursed to the shipbuilding sector this year and in subsequent years prior to its accession to the EU.
3) For Q6, with regards to Croatia’s privatization plan for the shipbuilding sector, we wonder if they could include information on where we could find more relevant and detailed information, including contact points.
2 Mr. Chairman,
I would like to conclude my intervention by expressing my appreciations to the Croatian delegation for a successful TPR, and wish them a pleasant trip back home.
And lastly, Mr. Chairman,
Since this is your last meeting as the TPRB chair, please allow me to express the gratitude of this delegation to you, Mr. Chairman, for the great efforts you have put in to the TPRB over the past year.
Memories fade fast, but early last year, the world and indeed the WTO membership as a whole was engulfed in a fear that the world economy might fall into a deep abyss of protectionist measures and counter protectionist measures; in short, “high intensity protectionism” in WTO jargon.
However, that worst case scenario has been averted thus far, thanks to many measures, in particular the monitoring work by the WTO TPRB. We value your contributions in the establishment of such a mechanism, and in this context, would like to express the high appreciations of this delegation for your contributions.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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