Serbia imposes quotas on iron and steel imports from BiH, with 50% customs duty on surplus – BiH Foreign Trade Chamber requests urgent meeting

The Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH Foreign Trade Chamber) has requested an urgent response from the BiH authorities regarding the information that the Serbian Government has restricted the import of certain iron and steel products from January 1 to June 30. As published on the official website of the BiH Foreign Trade Chamber, the Serbian Government Regulation on the introduction of temporary measures to ensure the economic stability of industries of strategic importance includes groups of products from BiH - ribbed concrete steel and hot-rolled wire in coils, as well as ribbed concrete steel in bars.

The regulation will last six months and will be implemented through a tariff quota system, and once the quotas are filled, a 50% customs duty will be applied to the import of these products, the announcement stated. Individual quotas are divided into quarterly maximums for the period from January 1 to March 31 and from then to June 30, with the possibility of transferring unused quota from the first to the second quarter. The quota distribution will be carried out on a “first come, first served” basis, i.e. based on the order of acceptance of customs declarations.

– The quotas introduced by the Serbian Government do not follow real trade flows, because, as stated in the Regulation, they were created based on data for the period 2020-2024 – reads the statement from the BiH Foreign Trade Chamber.

The Chamber expressed concern on behalf of companies, i.e. exporters. They added that based on the data of the STK BiH, it is evident that already in the first quarter of 2025, exports of the aforementioned products from BiH exceeded the allowed quarterly quota.

– It is evident that when determining the quotas, the cumulative volume of actual trade flows, regional distribution models, and the real market share of manufacturers and suppliers from BiH were not fully taken into account – the statement reads.

The Chamber believes that the adoption of the Regulation limiting the unhindered duty-free placement of goods within the CEFTA countries 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 at border crossings, which is the most critical problem for exporters from BiH. This is a consequence of the fact that the Serbian customs authorities have an additional procedure to monitor quotas, says the BiH Foreign Trade Chamber.

The Chamber warned that the consequences of holding up cargo are serious, starting from direct and growing financial costs, delays in deliveries to contracted buyers 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, the BiH Foreign Trade Chamber asks the BiH authorities to urgently react to the competent institutions of Serbia and CEFTA structures due to the economic repercussions of the effects of the Regulation on the free, duty-free flow of goods within the CEFTA countries.

Vanjskotrgovinska/Spoljnotrgovinska komora BiH Sarajevo

Vlada Republike Srbije

Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina

BiH Foreign Trade Chamber

Serbian Government Regulation on the introduction of temporary measures to ensure the economic stability of industries of strategic importance

import of steel and iron products