Press release: Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic meets Director of the WTO Accession Department Arif Hussain

Montenegrin Prime Minster Milo Djukanovic met today in Podgorica with Director of the World Trade Organizations Accession Department Arif Hussein.

Having acquainted the Prime Minister with the very favorable assessment by the WTO Secretariat regarding Montenegros readiness to open the accession process, Mr Hussein expressed his conviction that the documentation Montenegro had provided would ensure successful organization of the first meeting of the Working Group on Montenegros Accession to the WTO, scheduled for October 4 in Geneva. He said that Montenegro, being a small and open economic system, could be a model for speedy accession to that global trade association and at the same time wished it every success in that process.

Prime Minister Djukanovic confirmed Montenegros commitment to meet all the requirements in the process of acceding to the WTO and expressed the readiness to employ all available institutional, personnel and financial resources to that end. He estimated that, within the preparation for the negotiations on the Stabilization and Association Agreement, the activities aimed at entering the WTO were extremely important, particularly in view of future negotiations on economic issues.

Prime Minister Djukanovic and Mr Hussein agreed that Euro-Atlantic integration, as Montenegros strategic priority, included prior membership of a global network such as the WTO, and for that reason joint efforts should be made to make the accession process as efficient and as quick as possible.