Bosnia and herzegovina Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in bosnia and herzegovina, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Standards for Trade
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Non-tariff Barriers to Trade

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 and Technical Regulations

BiH standards are designated per the BAS Standard.  The key national standard body is the BiH Institute for Standardization, though the BiH Institute for Metrology and BiH Institute for Intellectual Property Rights (“IPR Institute”) also impact trade. 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)

Testing, Inspection and Certification

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 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.

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 Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) 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 is a versatile tool that can be used 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,
  • Receive customized e-mail alerts when new notifications are distributed,
  • Find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees. 


 Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates an 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 Enquiry Point. Refer to the comment guidance at https://www.nist.gov/notifyus/commenting 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.

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Global Business Navigator Chatbot Beta

Welcome to the Global Business Navigator, an artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot from the International Trade Administration (ITA). This tool, currently in beta version testing, is designed to provide general information on the exporting process and the resources available to assist new and experienced U.S. exporters. The Chatbot, developed using Microsoft’s Azure AI services, is trained on ITA’s export-related content and aims to quickly get users the information they need. The Chatbot is intended to make the benefits of exporting more accessible by understanding non-expert language, idiomatic expressions, and foreign languages.

Limitations

As a beta product, the Chatbot is currently being tested and its responses may occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete information. The Chatbot is trained to decline out of scope or inappropriate requests. The Chatbot’s knowledge is limited to the public information on the Export Solutions web pages of Trade.gov, which covers a wide range of topics on exporting. While it cannot provide responses specific to a company’s product or a specific foreign market, its reference pages will guide you to other relevant government resources and market research. Always double-check the Chatbot’s responses using the provided references or by visiting the Export Solutions web pages on Trade.gov. Do not use its responses as legal or professional advice. Inaccurate advice from the Chatbot would not be a defense to violating any export rules or regulations.

Privacy

The Chatbot does not collect information about users and does not use the contents of users’ chat history to learn new information. All feedback is anonymous. Please do not enter personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive, or proprietary information into the Chatbot. Your conversations will not be connected to other interactions or accounts with ITA. Conversations with the Chatbot may be reviewed to help ITA improve the tool and address harmful, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate questions.

Translation

The Chatbot supports a wide range of languages. Because the Chatbot is trained in English and responses are translated, you should verify the translation. For example, the Chatbot may have difficulty with acronyms, abbreviations, and nuances in a language other than English.

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