Ratification of Protocol on the amendment of the Free Trade Agreement between Albania and the EFTA countries

Official Bulletin no. 22, dated 13 February 2017

On 01.26.2017, the Parliament of the Republic of Albania approved Law no.5/2017 by which ratified the Protocol on the amendment of the Free Trade Agreement between Albania and the EFTA countries.

Ratification of this protocol is aimed at improving and developing international trade in a way that contributes to the objective of sustainable development and to ensure that this objective is integrated and reflected in trade relations between Albania and the EFTA countries.

The main objectives of states part of this agreement are the creation of favorable conditions for sustainable development of trade, promotion of trade and economic cooperation in areas of mutual interest on the basis and in respect of the principles of equality, mutual benefit, non-discrimination and international law.

Also, based on the desire and willingness of both sides to implement this agreement in accordance with the objective to preserve and protect the environment through sustainable management of environment and to promote an optimal use of resources, based on the principles of OECD and corporate social responsibility, Albania and the EFTA countries decided to amend the free trade agreement between them.

The main amendments which the law stipulates are:

The text set out in Annex I of this Protocol shall replace the preamble in its entirety.

A new subparagraph (c) shall be added to paragraph 2 of Article 1 “Objectives” of the agreement and new subparagraphs after subparagraph (c) will therefore be redefined.

The text set out in Annex II ofthis Protocol shall be added as a new chapter 6 and numbers of all existing chapters and articles after Chapter 6 will consequently be renumbered. The reference to “Article 33” in paragraph 3 of Article 32 “Consultations” of the agreement will be replaced by “Article 43”.

The reference to “Chapter 7” in Article 7 of the bilateral agreement on agriculture ,between Albania and Iceland, Albania and the Kingdom of Norway and Albania and the Swiss Confederation will be replaced by “Chapter 8”.

The reference to “Article 31” in paragraph 1 of Article 1 regarding the rules of procedure of the Joint Committee EFTA-Albania approved by decision 1 of 2013 of the Joint Committee EFTA-Albania will be replaced by “Article 41”.