The Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina (STK BiH) has requested an urgent response from the authorities of BiH regarding information that the Government of Serbia, from January 1 to June 30, has restricted the import of certain iron and steel products.
As published on the official website of STK BiH, the “Decree of the Government of Serbia on the introduction of a temporary measure to ensure the economic stability of industries of strategic importance” covers groups of products from BiH – ribbed reinforcing steel and hot-rolled wire in coils, as well as ribbed reinforcing steel in bars.
The decree will last six months and will be implemented through a system of tariff quotas, and once the quotas are filled, a 50 percent customs duty will be applied to the import of these products, the statement said.
Individual quotas are divided into quarterly maximums for the period from January 1 to March 31 and from then until June 30, with the possibility of transferring unused quota from the first to the second quarter.
The allocation of quotas will be carried out on a “first come, first served” basis, that is, according to the order of acceptance of customs declarations.
“The quotas introduced by the Government of Serbia do not follow real trade flows, because, as stated in the Decree itself, they were made on the basis of data for the period 2020–2024,” the STK statement reads.
STK BiH expressed concern on behalf of business entities, that is, exporters.
They added that, based on STK BiH data, it is evident that already in the first quarter of 2025 the export of the listed products from BiH exceeded the permitted quarterly quota.
“It is evident that in determining the quotas, the cumulative volume of actual trade flows, regional distribution models, and the real market share of producers and suppliers from BiH were not fully taken into account,” the statement reads.
STK believes that the adoption of the Decree, which limits the unobstructed duty-free placement of goods within CEFTA countries, and this at the very end of a business year, represents a limiting factor for long-term contracts that companies from BiH have with companies in Serbia.
They also pointed out that trucks are already being held up at border crossings, which is the most critical problem for exporters from BiH. This is a consequence of the fact that Serbian customs authorities have an additional procedure to monitor quotas, STK BiH said.
STK warned that the consequences of cargo delays are serious, starting from direct and growing financial costs, delays in deliveries to contracted customers in Serbia, disruptions in production and construction supply chains, and serious damage to the reputation of suppliers from BiH as reliable and predictable partners.
Because of all this, STK BiH is requesting that the authorities of BiH urgently react toward the competent institutions of Serbia and CEFTA structures due to the economic repercussions of the effects of the Decree on the free, duty-free flow of goods within CEFTA countries.
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