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SARAJEVO, November 29 (FENA) - The Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH (FTCBiH) believes that, regardless of the distance of the American market, by using the advantages of the GSP preferential system, it is possible to improve trade between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United States in terms of increasing BiH exports of products covered by the GSP, and products of the wood processing industry.
Since the end of the war in BiH, the United States has provided significant support to BiH's development through various development programs implemented by USAID and the US Embassy.
In addition to these development programs, the US government has unilaterally included Bosnia and Herzegovina in its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), with the aim of supporting the growth of the BiH economy. The GSP system enables duty-free export of more than 3,400 products originating from BiH to the USA (a large number of industrial products, ores and chemicals, travel equipment, a large number of food products, etc.).
"The benefits for the BiH economy through the GSP system are expected to continue in the next period, as well as support through US development programs, especially, having in mind the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the BiH economy," FTC BiH told FENA.
The foreign trade of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the United States exceeds the amount of 500 million KM in the last few years on an annual basis. In 2019, the volume of trade between the two countries amounted to 612 million KM, which puts the United States in 12th place in terms of volume of trade. In that year, BiH's imports amounted to 560 million KM, and exports to 52 million KM.
We mostly export products of the metal processing, military and food industries to the US market, while we mostly import coal and other ores, agri-food products and vehicles from the USA.
As already mentioned, due to the great distance, small market, low purchasing power of the population and challenges in the business environment, foreign direct investment from the United States in BiH is not at the desired level.
They noted that Bosnia and Herzegovina must continue to work to improve the business environment for both domestic and foreign investors.
"We believe that in the field of information and communication technologies there is room to attract investors from the United States. Even today, a large number of BiH companies from the ICT sector are actively cooperating with companies from the USA. Also, there are chances for attracting investors from the USA in the field of services, especially in the segment of "outsourcing", and opportunities for joint investment in the purpose-built industry," stated FTCBiH.
The American Chamber of Commerce - AmCham, like any business support organization, has a significant role to play in efforts to improve the business environment.
"It is extremely important that AmCham operates in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, among other things, provides support to American companies that operate or want to do business in our country. FTC BiH works closely with AmCham because our goal is the same, and that is to improve the business environment and connect the two markets," BiH Foreign Trade Chamber told FENA.
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