Bosnia has some strategic trade relationships which have helped the country boost its economic activities
Bosnia – EFTA
On June 24, 2013, the EFTA countries signed a free trade agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina in Trondheim, Norway. The Agreement becomes effective on January 1, 2015.
With the agreement’s entry into force, EFTA eliminates all customs charges on industrial items originating in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including fish and other marine products. Apart from a few delicate fish and other marine items, Bosnia and Herzegovina also eliminates all customs taxes on industrial products originating in an EFTA country (Annex III). Bosnia and Herzegovina is expected to gradually dismantle the majority of such items.
Tariff concessions on processed agricultural products are included in the agreement (Annex II). Three bilateral agreements between the EFTA member states and Bosnia and Herzegovina cover tariff discounts on fundamental agricultural items.
Economic development, social development, and environmental protection are all interrelated, according to the parties. In Chapter 6, they reaffirm their commitment to multilateral environmental and labor agreements and principles, promising to sustain protection levels while acknowledging each Party’s freedom to determine its level of environmental and labor protections.
Bosnia – Switzerland
Switzerland is interested in long-term stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is why it backs the country’s reform initiatives at all levels – state, entities, cantons, and municipalities. Switzerland is helping to promote good governance, justice, the market economy, and health care in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a result of its large contribution. It also aids local attempts to address the war’s aftermath, which lasted from 1992 to 1995.
Free trade agreements, visa facilitation, investment protection, and air transport agreements, as well as migration cooperation, have been signed between Switzerland and Bosnia, and Herzegovina.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s tenth major trading partner and ninth-largest investor in Switzerland. Switzerland imported items worth CHF 113 million in 2018, principally furniture, iron, steel products, and agricultural products; Swiss exports totaled CHF 93 million in 2018, primarily chemical and pharmaceutical products, as well as aluminum.
The sizable Bosnian diaspora community in Switzerland, as well as the remittances its members send home, form a significant part of the two nations’ economic links.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a priority country for Switzerland’s Eastern Europe cooperation program, which aims to ensure political stability and execute much-needed structural economic and political reforms in the country. In approximately the previous 20 years, Switzerland has invested over CHF 500 million in projects, programs, and international missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The desire of the Bosnian people to join the EU is supported by Switzerland. The current collaboration strategy, which runs from 2017 to 2020, has a budget of around CHF 74 million.
State Secretariat for Migration programs, which are part of the migration partnership with Bosnia and Herzegovina, is another important activity under the cooperation program in Sarajevo.
SAA
Since the start of the Stabilisation and Association Process, the EU has signed bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with each of the Western Balkan countries, including Albania (2009), North Macedonia (2004), Montenegro (2010), Serbia (2013), Bosnia and Herzegovina (2015), and Kosovo* (2016). The SAAs are instruments for the region’s economic development and political stability, as well as the establishment of a tight, long-term relationship between the EU and the Western Balkans. The SAAs provide a legal framework for adhering to the EU acquis and gradually integrating into the EU market.
Over a transitional phase, the SAAs established a free-trade zone, which has since expired for all but Kosovo* (2026). The Agreements call for the abolition of tariffs and non-tariff barriers to bilateral trade, and they apply to items from all chapters of the Harmonized System. Only a few agricultural and fishery goods, which are subject to reduced levies and/or favorable quantitative concessions, are not fully liberalized.
In addition, the agreements include measures relating to competition, a high level of intellectual property protection, and improved customs cooperation. They also contain additional disciplines such as government procurement, legislative approximation in various areas, including standardization, and service and establishment provisions.
