More than a third of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s imports during the 11 months of this year came from the countries of the former Yugoslavia, according to data from the BiH Indirect Taxation Administration (ITA BiH), which were submitted to “Nezavisne novine”.
Thus, by far the largest import is from Croatia, from which in this period came products worth 5.41 billion KM.
Goods worth 3.83 billion KM came from Serbia, and 2.39 billion KM from Slovenia.
In the same period, 209 million KM worth of products came from North Macedonia, and 186 million KM from Montenegro.
In the data of the ITA of BiH, it is written that the total import in 11 months of this year amounted to 28.97 billion KM, while of this amount, goods for about 12 billion KM were imported from these five countries that together with BiH formed the former Yugoslavia.
This means that goods are massively imported to Bosnia and Herzegovina from these five countries.
On the other hand, we exported 6.82 billion KM worth of goods to these countries in 11 months of this year, and out of five of them, we only had positive foreign trade cooperation with Montenegro, and with all the others we had a deficit.
We exported goods to Croatia for 2.86 billion KM, Serbia 1.73 billion KM, Slovenia 1.44 billion KM, Montenegro 607 million KM, and North Macedonia 195 million KM
The data for Croatia are particularly worrying, where imports are higher than exports by as much as 2.5 billion KM, Serbia by 2.1 billion KM, and Slovenia by slightly less than one billion KM, 950 million KM to be exact.
When it comes to total export and import, for 11 months of this year the most imported nuclear reactors, boilers, machines, and apparatus and mechanical devices for 2.56 billion KM, while on the other hand, the most exported electrical machines and equipment and their parts, apparatus for recording or reproducing sound; television sets for recording or reproducing images and sound for about 1.48 billion KM.
Economist Igor Gavran explains for “Nezavisne novine” that a large part of this mentioned import from Serbia and Croatia actually refers to products from third countries, including many that Serbia and Croatia themselves also import because they do not produce them.
“Considering that BiH really needs many products that we do not produce, nor can we realistically produce them (either at all or in sufficient quantities), then that part of the import is not a problem for the most part, but simply a fact based on real potentials – natural or economic. And when that part is separated and analyzed only the import of goods originating from Serbia and Croatia, then the figures are much smaller and the ratio of exports and imports is much more favorable. Although these data also have their value because they show that we import too many goods through intermediaries from neighborhood, which affects higher prices in BiH (as soon as we do not import goods directly, it means that we pay a certain commission or additional transport costs and other related costs to someone in the neighborhood). In any case, it would be good if we import everything we have to import directly into BiH whenever it is logistically feasible and there are no other obstacles or negative effects”, emphasized Gavran.
According to him, when everything mentioned about the methodology and data coverage is taken into account, the fact remains that the structure of our trade with neighboring countries is not favorable and that we still excessively import a wide range of products that we produce ourselves or can produce in sufficient quantities and of appropriate quality, and that our exports are not even close to the level of real potential, they write. Independent newspaper.
“Even when we have quantitatively significant exports, the prices at which we sell goods are very often very low. We can overcome these shortcomings in several ways, but it is unrealistic to expect complete substitution of imports. First of all, we must improve business conditions in BiH and the competitiveness of our economy, which is a joint task of the competent authorities (when it comes to regulation and a large part of business costs) and businessmen themselves (who must adopt new technologies, improve quality, productivity and marketing, among other things), because this should simultaneously help the growth of exports and increase market share on the domestic market, i.e. the reduction of imports. When it comes to imports, more efficient and stricter control of imports can contribute, but only in those segments where there are currently significant omissions”, Gavran pointed out.
