While domestic companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina pay customs duties, VAT, warehouses, contributions and increasingly expensive labor, the Chinese platform Temu enters the market through a channel that, according to the regulations, is exempt from import duties for low-value shipments. The result is a market with two sets of rules: one for domestic traders, the other for cross-border platforms.
And the bill is already coming — through declining sales, store closings and fear of layoffs.
According to available data from the Administration for Indirect Taxation, in BiH during 2025 the value of customs-cleared goods in postal traffic at the Customs Offices in Banja Luka, Mostar and Sarajevo was about 3.8 million KM. These are shipments that are subject to import customs duties, namely: the value of goods over 300 KM ordered by a natural person from a legal entity, i.e. the value of goods over 90 KM ordered by a natural person from another natural person from abroad.
In practice, a large number of shipments arrive as individual orders from citizens, often below the duty-free threshold. According to the current rules, when a natural person in Bosnia and Herzegovina orders goods from abroad and pays for them at the time of ordering, import duties are exempted for shipments of “negligible value” up to 300 KM. In the case of shipments that a natural person receives from a natural person without payment, the exemption threshold is up to 90 KM, with the condition that the goods are for personal use and that the quantities do not indicate further sale.
It’s a frame that, formally, is made for sporadic shipments. In reality, hundreds of thousands of packages arrive on the BiH market, and domestic traders claim that the system has turned into a highway for goods that de facto competes with the domestic retail and wholesale chains, but without the costs that the domestics have to pay.
We cannot be competitive
Director of the company AN-KA doo Elektronik centar Adnan Manso, whose company operates in Sarajevo, Tuzla and Banja Luka and employs 25 workers, says that the problem has already grown into an existential crisis of the sector.
“We pay customs, taxes, workers, storage. All this costs us 80 to 100 percent of the purchase price. Temu sells goods at Chinese prices without these additional costs. We cannot be competitive at all. Realistically — not at all,” Manso told Akta.ba.
AN-KA is engaged in the procurement and sale of equipment for mobile phones, computers, video surveillance, alarm systems, car equipment, LED lighting and other technical goods. As a wholesaler, they supply a wide network of customers.
“I have 500 of my customers that I supply and they are all now at risk. I was in the field all week and everyone said the same thing, the end customer buys at Temu and no longer buys here,” says Manso.
While the platforms operate on the model of direct delivery and mass logistics, domestic companies carry a cost structure that cannot be “deleted”: customs and VAT on imports, transport, storage, utilities, labor, contributions, fiscalization, lease, service and complaints.
“A worker with a minimum wage today costs us about 2,500 KM with contributions. I have 25 employees. When sales fall, I have nothing to ‘determine’ these costs. Everyone is at risk,” warns Manso.
In translation, the domestic trader must form a price that covers the real costs of doing business in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A platform that sells directly, and a large portion of shipments enter the exemption regime, can keep prices that domestics cannot follow, even when they source goods from the same countries.
Who controls the safety of goods?
The domestic sector does not only warn of financial damage. The import of goods without clear market control also raises the issue of standards, declarations and health correctness, especially in the case of electronics, chargers, batteries, toys, plastics and tableware.
In the field, the question is heard more and more often: if the domestic retailer has to fulfill obligations according to regulations and consumers, who takes responsibility for the goods that enter through mass individual shipments?
Turkey as a precedent
Manso cites the example of Turkey, where the market responded by requiring a formal presence and rules that apply to the domestic as well.
“They forced them to open an office in Turkey. Then they said – you can work, no problem, but under the same conditions as Turkish online retailers. You can’t come here from China and sell without costs,” says Manso.
Will Bosnia and Herzegovina react at all?
At this point, the essential question is not whether citizens will shop online, but whether the state can allow a market where domestic entities operate under full fiscal and regulatory burden, while competition relies on exemptions provided for small and sporadic shipments.
If the system does not change, traders warn, the consequences will not only be a drop in traffic. This means the closing of shops, shutdown of wholesale chains, loss of jobs and additional draining of money from the domestic economy, he writes Acts.
“This is a really big blow to our economy. We’re not asking for a ban — we’re asking for the same rules for everyone,” says Manso.
