Bosnia and Herzegovina - Country Commercial Guide
Standards for Trade
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Overview

After the breakup of Yugoslavia, BiH inherited more than 11,000 Yugoslav standards and by-laws (known as “JUS” standards) and a number of those standards still remain in force.  Identical regulations and standards are applied to both domestic and imported goods, regardless of the country of origin.

Standards

As of January 1, 2007, the former BiH Institute for Standardization, Metrology, and Intellectual Property was broken into three separate institutions:

  • BiH Institute for Standardization
  • BiH Institute for Metrology
  • BiH Institute for Intellectual Property Rights (“IPR Institute”)

BiH standards are designated per the BAS Standard.  BiH is a member of the following international organizations for standardization:

  • International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
  • International Electro-technical Commission (IEC)
  • European Committee for Standardization (CEN)
  • European Committee for Electro-technical Standardization (CENELEC)
  • European Telecommunications Standards (ETSI)

Conformity Assessment

The Institute for Standardization is the main conformity assessment body in BiH.  There are other testing organizations in BiH; a list of these institutions can be obtained from the Institute for Standardization.

For information on testing/conformity assessment for food and agricultural products, please see the Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards and Exporter Guide.

For information on laboratories authorized for testing genetically engineered products, please see the Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards  (Section VII: Other Specific Standards and Appendix I).

Product Certification

Product certification is required to ensure that the product has undergone appropriate testing and conforms to relevant regulations.  USDA has additional agriculture-related information at the following two websites: Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards and Exporter Guide.  There are no existing Mutual Recognition Agreements with U.S. organizations.

Testing, Inspection and Certification/Accreditation

The BiH Accreditation Institute is the main institution for accrediting testing organizations in the country.  Before placing a product on the market in BiH, the manufacturer or its authorized representative in BiH must assess whether the product conforms to current technical regulations.  The Law on Technical Requirements defines the assessment procedures for products and on conformity assessment.  Conformity documents and markings issued abroad are recognized in BiH if they are issued in accordance with the international agreements on mutual recognition of documents to which BiH is a signatory.  The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations may recognize the validity of conformity documents and conformity markings issued in the countries with which BiH has not signed international agreements if they have been issued in accordance with technical regulations that are equivalent to those adopted by BiH, and if the competence of the bodies that carried out the conformity assessment has been verified according to the same requirements as those prescribed for such bodies by BiH regulations.

Publication of Technical Regulations

The BiH Institute for Standardization publishes a bulletin of standards.  Technical regulations are published in the Official Gazette of BiH, the Official Gazette of FBiH, and the Official Gazette of the RS.  U.S. companies can comment directly to the Institute.

Most food and agricultural products are subject to sanitary, phytosanitary, and quality standards.  To learn more about these technical regulations please see the Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards and Exporter Guide.

Use ePing to review proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures 

The ePing SPS&TBT platform (https://epingalert.org/), or “ePing”, provides access to notifications made by World Trade Organization (WTO) Members under the Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), distributed by the WTO from January 16, 1995 to present.  ePing is available to all stakeholders free of charge and does not require registration unless the user wishes to receive customized e-mail alerts.  Use it to browse notifications on past as well as new draft and updated product regulations, food safety and animal and plant health standards and regulations, find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees, locate information on SPS/TBT Enquiry Points and notification authorities, and to follow and review current and past notifications concerning regulatory actions on products, packaging, labeling, food safety and animal and plant health measures in markets of interest. 

Notify U.S., operated and maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since 2003 to distribute and provide access to notifications (and associated draft texts) made under the WTO TBT Agreement for US stakeholders, has reached its end of life. Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates a national TBT (and an SPS) Enquiry Point.  National TBT Enquiry Points are authorized to accept comments and official communications from other national TBT Enquiry Points, which are NOT part of the WTO or the WTO Secretariat.  All comment submissions from U.S. stakeholders, including businesses, trade associations, U.S domiciled standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies, consumers, or U.S. government agencies on notifications to the WTO TBT Committee should be sent directly to the USA WTO TBT Inquiry Point.  Refer to the comment guidance at https://tsapps.nist.gov/notifyus/data/guidance/guidance.cfm for further information. This guidance is provided to assist U.S. stakeholders in the preparation and submission of comments in response to notifications of proposed foreign technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.