The two-day Parliamentary Conference on “Trade Facilitation and Investments in the Western Balkans”, organised by the World Trade Organization and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, took place in Belgrade on 12 and 13 July 2018.

The conference was opened by Mr Đorđe Milićević, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia, Ms Olivera Jocić, Assistant Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Mr Pedro Roque, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, and Mr Said El Hachimi, member of the Council of the World Trade Organization.

The conference covered topics such as: the Euro-Mediterranean process of convergence and its influence on the countries in the region, the significance of multilateral trade regulations and negotiations for the economies of the Mediterranean countries, regulations and functioning of the WTO, the WTO Ministerial Conference, as well as the state-of-play of international trade. Furthermore, at the Conference they also discussed the accession to the WTO, regional integration in the Western Balkans towards creating regional economic area, as well as future engagement of MPs in WTO-related issues.

At the end of the conference, the organisers voiced their interest in holding the next such conference in Montenegro.

The conference was attended by Vice President of the Parliament Mr Branimir Gvozdenović, MP Mr Momčilo Martinović, and MP and member of the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget Ms Ana Nikolić.