WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/REG142/N/1/Rev.1
24 December 2002
(02-7105)
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements Original:  English
EUROPEAN COMMUNITY – CROATIA INTERIM AGREEMENT
Notification from the Parties to the Agreement
Revision
The following communication, dated 17 December 2002, has been received from the
Permanent Delegation of the European Commission with the request that it be distributed to WTO
Members.
_______________
The delegations of the European Communities and Croatia have the honour to inform the
Members of the WTO that the Interim Agreement on Trade and Trade-related Matters between the
European Community and the Republic of Croatia formally entered into force on 1 March 2002.1 The
Agreement contains provisions relating to trade in goods that are of relevance to the Members of theWTO.
The Interim Agreement on Trade and Trade-related Matters establishes a free trade area
between the European Communities and the Republic of Croatia in the sense of Article XXIV of the
GATT 1994.  This free trade area will be established over a maximum period of six years,
commencing on 1 March 2002, at the end of which duties and other restrictive regulations of
commerce will have been eliminated on substantially all the trade between the parties.
__________
                                                     
1 The text of the Interim Agreement is circulated in document WT/REG142/1. It is also
published in the Official Journal of the European Communities L/330 of 14 December 2001 (which can
be accessed on the internet at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/index.html).