Customs

In this part of the CEFTA Web Portal you will find the most important customs import/export procedures separately for each CEFTA Economy. Procedures include but are not limited to: 1.The location of customs clearance offices; 2.The working hours in each office; 3.The procedures to follow based on the destination of your goods; 4.The documents to present to customs authorities for obtaining approval for the relevant destination; 5.The officially approved documents given to you by customs authorities in each case; 6.The procedures followed by customs authorities for calculating the customs value of your goods; 7.The definition of rules of origins determining customs preferential or non preferential tariffs; 8.The Free Trade Agreements signed by each CEFTA Economy with the other signatories. In cases where the final destination of goods is one of the CEFTA Economies, please refer to the import procedures section of this Economy on this portal. In cases where goods transit through different economies before arriving to their final destination, please refer to the transit procedures of these economies. If goods exit one of the CEFTA Economies included in this site, please refer to the export procedures for the relevant Economy.




 

The origin of goods is regulated by:

• Provisions of the Article 19-24 of the Law on Customs Policy of BiH (the Law) („Official Gazette BiH“, No. 57/04, 51/06, 93/08, 54/10 and 76/11) . The new Law on Customs Policy of BIH has been adopted ("Official Gazette of BIH", No 58/15) which entered into force on May 27, 2015, but implementation will start on the date of aplication of the Implementing Regulations.

• provisions of Article 14-59 of the Decision on Implementing Regulations of the Law on Customs Policy of Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Official Gazette", No. 60/06 and 57/08)

  • Provisions of the Free Trade Agreements as follows:

1. Free Trade Agreements between BIH and the Republic of Turkey ("Official Gazette of BIH-International Treaties", No 6/03, 3/11) with Protocol concerning the Definition on Concept of "originating products", and methods of administrative cooperation, as the integral part of the Agreement.

2. Agreement of Amendments of and Accession to the Central European Free Trade Agreement - CEFTA 2006 ("Official Gazette of BIH -International Treaties", No 9/07) with Protocol of the Decision of the Joint Committee of Central European Free Trade Agreement No 3/2013, that is adopted on November 20, 2013.  The decision is to amend the Annex 4 of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA 2006). Protocol concerning the Definition of the Concept  of the "originating products" and method of administrative cooperation from the  Article 14, Paragraphs 1 and 3 ("Official Gazette of BIH", No 31/14). The application of the Convention for BiH started on February 01, 2015.

3. Stabilization and Association Agreement between BiH and European Community and its member states ("Official Gazette of BIH - International Treaties", No 10/08 with the Protocol concerning the Definition of the Concept of "oirginating products", and methods of administrative cooperation, as the integral part of the Agreement.

4. Free Trade Agreement between BIH and member states of the European Association of Free Trade (EFTA) ("Official Gazette of BIH- Intenational Treaties", No 18/14). In accordance with the Article 8(2) of the Agreement, from the date when for economies a Regional Convention on Pan-Ero Mediterranean preferential rules on origin of goods enters into force the Protocol on rules of origin of goods is no longer applied, and the rights and obligations of the economies regarding the rules of origin and administrative cooperation between customs authorities of the economies is to be governed by Convention. The Convention has been applied since January, 1, 2015.

 

Additionally the Indirect Taxation Authority issued the instructions on implementation of the rules on origin in preferential trade with the aforementioned economies, signatories of the agreement. In the Instruction on Implementation of the Rules of Origin in preferential trade within the Central European Free Trade Agreement, the treatments are additionally clarified in realization of the CEFTA agreement (Instruction, OG BiH, No. 95/07). Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH has also issued the Guidelines on Application of Rules of origin in preferencial trade between BiH and European Community (" Official Gazette of BiH", No 46/09) and Instruction on Conditions and Method of Acquiring the Status of Autorized Exporter (Official Gazete of BIH", No 46/14).

Goods originating in some economy are those which are completely obtained or produced in that economy. These are typically mineral products extracted within that economy, live animals raised in that economy, as well as their products including those obtained by hunting and fishing, vegetable products harvested in that economy etc. as well as goods produced in that economy exclusively of these products.

For the goods in whose production participated multiple economies it is considered that it is of the origin of that economy where it passed final, substantial, economically justified working or processing in the company equipped for that purpose which had as a result production of new product or which presented significant phase of production.

 The preferential treatment on rules of origin of goods within the CEFTA agreement it is regulated by the Protocol in Annex 4 of the Agreement and applies to those goods which:

• are covered by the Agreement;

• satisfy term of origin defined in Protocol;

• are directly transported between the economies;

• are not subject to refund or exemption from customs duties of any kind in some of the economies and

• fulfillment of all these conditions is proved by filing valid evidence on origin of goods.

 

For the following products it is considered that are originating in some of the economies signatories of the CEFTA agreement:

• products wholly obtained in that economy;

• products obtained in economy in whose production other products are used compared to those wholly obtained, conditioned that these passed sufficient working or processing and;

• products to which rule of cumulation of origin can be applied.


Specific production processes that are considered sufficient working or processing for all products are given in the list in Annex II of the Protocol. The following operations as well as combinations of several of those are examples of actions considered insufficient to obtain status of originating goods: packaging, painting, peeling, simple mixing, sorting, animal slaughter etc.

With regard to cumulation of origin in the CEFTA context, the cumulation presumes that the products which obtained the status of origin in one or more economies may be used with the products originating in the economy without deviating from preferential status of final product. Thus, in the case of cumulation, in order for a final product to obtain an origin of partner economy the procedures of working or processing on the originating product in each of the partner economies does not have to be the aforementioned ‘sufficient working or processing’ but must go beyond the aforementioned ‘minimum operation’. The bilateral cumulation is ongoing between two signatory economies, and diagonal cumulation presumes participation of more than two economies, conditioned that all economies have mutual agreements signed and identical rules of origin.


Proof of origin

(Certificate of Origin)

When, during import, the origin of goods is proven or has to be proven by presenting the certificate of origin, that certificate has to meet the following conditions:

(a) issued by the body properly authorized for that purpose and considered reliable;

(b) contains all data necessary for identification of product it pertains to and in particular:

− number of packages, their character, marks and numbers carried on it;

− type of product;

− gross and net weight of product, however, these data can be replaced with other such as number or volume, when the product suffers significant changes in the weight during the transport or when the weight cannot be determined or when it is usually identified by such data,

− name/title of sender.

(c) beyond doubt confirms that the product it pertains to originates in certain economy.

 

In BiH the certificate of BiH origin of the product FORM A and Certificate of BiH origin of the product is issued by the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH from its central office in Sarajevo or from regional offices based on filed written request of the company or other legal entity registered for performance of foreign trade turnover and registered into single evidences of records entered into court registry for performance of foreign trade on theformprescribed by the Chamber. With the request the company is obliged to file the following:

1. the evidence that it is entered into single registry of companies engaged in foreign trade;

2. a written statement of the producer that the goods are of BiH origin and attest of producer, i.e. certificates on quality of goods or other document proving origin of goods;

3. pro forma invoice or sales agreement.

For the purpose of determining customs procedure the origin of goods can have non-preferential or preferential treatment. The goods subject to preferential treatment related to origin enjoy certain privileges in regards to the calculation and charge of customs duties based on agreements signed with other economies or customs unions through the agreements on free trade or other agreements. For more information on such agreements signed by BiH, please see the link ‘Free trade agreements'.

In order to use privileges of preferential treatment when placing products in free circulation, customs authorities shall be presented with the following:

• Movement certificate EUR.1 or;

• “Invoice declaration” on the invoice, delivery slip or any other commercial document given by the exporter.

EUR.1 is issued/verified by customs branch office where the procedure of exporting customs clearance is conducted at the written request of the exporter who is obliged to enclose all required documentation proving that the given products meet the requirements for the status of originating goods. The clarifications for completing the request for issuance of the EUR. 1 form are contained in the Instruction.

The volume of data depends on rules that need to be met and these are some or all of the following items:

• tariff classification of goods;

• working or processing operations;

• proof of origin for all materials or parts used the origin status is requested for;

• detail on all non-originating materials or parts used in production of final product, including tariff classification and customs value of those;

• evidence on payment of relevant customs duties for non-originating goods used;

• all other supporting documentation, upon request of customs authorities.

As proof of origin of goods, the invoice declaration can be made by each exporter for the shipment whose total value shall not exceed EUR 6,000 or approved exporter for each shipment regardless of its value. The purpose of this alternative possibility is simplification of procedure for exporters regularly exporting their products within the cumulation zone. They are not requested to file the request to customs authorities for issuance of the certificate EUR 1. for each shipment. However, prior to being authorized to make an invoice declaration, regardless of shipment value, the approved exporters must fulfill certain rules and conditions. The Indirect Taxation Authority issued special Instruction on conditions and manner of obtaining the status of approved exporter from BiH with which the form of the Request is published, which, with other prescribed documentation is filed to ITA – Sector for Customs.

The proofs of origin (Movement certificate EUR 1. or Invoice declaration) are valid for a period of four months starting from the day of issuance in the exporting economy and it has to be presented to the customs authorities of importing economy within that period.

Refund or exemption from payment of customs duties on non-originating materials used in production of exporting products the issuing of proof of origin is requested for, is not permitted. All duties to which the non-originating goods are subject must be paid and in no case should there be exemption or compensation and upon the request of customs authorities, the evidence in that sense has to be presented to the customs authorities prior to issuing proof of origin.


Documents

Articles 19-59 of the Law on Customs Policy of BiH (the Law) („Official Gazette BiH“, No. 57/04, 51/06, 93/08 and 54/10)

Instruction on origin of goods , („Official Gazette BiH“, No. 95/07)

Law on Customs Policy of BiH ("Official Gazette of BiH", No 58/15) 

 

Contact

Ministry of foreign trade and economic relations BiH

Hajrudin Podbicanin – Assistant Minister for customs policy and tarrifs

Musala 9, 71000 Sarajevo Bosna i Hercegovina

Tel: 033/664-103 fax: 033/664-103

E-mail: hajrudin.podbicanin@mvteo.gov.ba

Web: http://www.mvteo.gov.ba


Indirect Taxation Authority BiH

Središnji ured UIO

Bana Lazarevica bb

78 000 Banja Luka

Tel: +387 51 335 100

Fax: +387 51 335 101,

E-mail: info@uino.gov.ba


Foreign Trade Chamber BiH

Branislava Ðurdeva 10

71000 Sarajevo

Tel: +387 33 56 62 22

Fax: +387 33 21 42 92

Web: http://www.komorabih.ba