The Egg War

An egg war has started between the EU and Bosnia. Croatia will join the EU in July 2013 and the new EU external border will separate the country from Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro. These two last countries have an effective government that warranties the EU food safety standards of their exports. They will not have problems to trade eggs and meat with Croatia. However, in Bosnia there is neither a ministry of agriculture to certify such standards, nor an agreement on who produces what. For example, Bosnian Serbs do not recognize their products as state level ones, but the Bosnian government does. If this situation continues, Bosnia will not be able to export either dairy goods or eggs or meat to Croatia once it will have entered the EU. Neither Bosnians nor Croatians like the situation; they think that Bosnians need to stick together in order to organize their production market. In addition, there will be only two crossings to trade food along the new border. Small producers’ businesses might not survive if their transport costs increase to get to any of those crossings, reducing Bosnian and Croat export rates between each other. Hopefully, the EU will bankroll more crossings. Also, trucks will waste more time and money during the new border controls. Even worse, this situation will cause inequality among Bosnians. Bosnia Croats who have a Croat citizenship (most of them) will become EU citizens while they will live in Bosnia. But, Bosniaks and Bosnia Serbs will not. Bosnia definitely needs to agree on who will certify EU food safety standards and also it needs to manage the new border traffic that they will have with Croatia.

Opinion:
I think the situation is very clear. Bosnia still lacks of unity among its diverse ethnic groups: Bosnian Croats, Bosniaks and Bosnia Serbs. For years, the leaders of the country haven't sought for common interests. This has led to the following situation: non common standards on production. It is comprehensible that the EU requires Bosnia to meet some specific food safety standards and to certify them, as they do with all their food imports. Croatia is entering the EU and maybe Serbia will soon do as well, since it has already submitted its application as a candidate for the organization. Bosnia, if they resolve their intern issues, might also one day join the EU. Now more than never, Bosnia needs to prove to the regional organization that their government is able to overcome this trade war by sticking together and strengthening their government.

Source:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/11/free-trade-and-old-grudges-balkans