Slovenia, Croatia to Sign Free-Trade Agreement

Ljubljana, 11 December - The free-trade agreement between Slovenia and Croatia, to be signed Friday in Zagreb by Premiers Janez Drnovšek and Zlatko Mateša, is particularly important for the economy as Croatia is Slovenia's fourth largest foreign trade partner. It is also expected to help stop negative trends in bilateral exchange that went down by ten percent in the first ten months of this year. The agreement needs ratification in both national parliaments, but temporal implementation is scheduled for 1 January 1998.