On Thursday 30th, December 1999, the High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, issued a Decision extending the validity of decisions made by the BiH Council of Ministers concerning the imposition of additional import duties on various products for 1999, and published in the Official Gazette of BiH under numbers 02/99 and 15/99.
The High Representatives decision, which came into effect immediately on signature, will allow the governments of both entities to continue to collect these import duties during 2000, and until the Council of Ministers brings a new decision on the same matter.
The previous decisions of the Council of Ministers were effective only until December 31st, 1999. The Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations had sent a draft of a new decision for the year 2000 to the Council of Ministers for approval before the end of the year. However, the Council of Ministers failed to act on this proposal.
In a joint letter by the Prime Ministers of both entities, the High Representative was made aware that the absence of a decision would result in a loss of protection on domestic products and a substantial loss of revenues by both Entity Governments.
The High Representative brought his Decision under the powers vested in him by Annex 10 of the Dayton Peace agreement and Article XI of the Conclusions of the Peace Implementation Council Conference held in Bonn in December 1997.