Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić told Tanjug that on Friday, at the meeting of the Joint Committee of CEFTA, Serbia will as Albania to revoke a provision which considerably restricts the importation of medicines from countries of the CEFTA agreement to this country.

“Albania has adopted a new Law on medical and pharmaceutical services, which provides that every drug that is imported into this country from, as they put it, the “Balkan countries”, must be registered in an EU country, in addition to the country of production. This is a totally discriminatory decision by Albania; as such term is not prescribed for any other country, except for members of the CEFTA agreement. We are now in a paradoxical situation where the states which signed a free trade agreement with Albania are at a disadvantage compared to all the other countries” said Ljajić.

The minister added that, for its initiative, Serbia has already received support from Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will also ask Albania to revoke the controversial decision on the import of medicines. Ljajić said that the European Commission was informed about everything.

The session of the Joint Committee of CEFTA will be held on Friday in Skopje.