Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Trade Relation with European Union
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Trade Relation with European Union

Author(s): Jelena Tešić, Dragan Gligoric
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Economy, National Economy, International relations/trade, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Университет за национално и световно стопанство (УНСС)
Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina; European Union; External Trade; CEFTA
Summary/Abstract: The process of European Union (EU) enlargement following the accession of Bulgaria and Romania will go towards the accession of Western Balkan countries. Region of the Western Balkans is consisted of six countries. Some of these countries have the status of the candidate country (Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro) while Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has the status of potential candidate, along with Serbia and Albania. Subject of this paper represent an analysis of trade aspects of the relations between BiH and the EU since EU is the most important trade partner of BiH. In addition, the subject of this paper will include an overview of the signing and establishment of CEFTA Agreement between countries in the region because the membership in this free trade zone represents one of the important steps towards EU membership. The goal of this paper is to empirically investigate how the BiH’s products are represented on the EU market and vice versa, what is the structure of its import and export, and in this context, what are the possible problems. Also, our goal is to analyze the possible future improvements for BiH in the context of trade relations with the EU. In the first part of the paper we will briefly provide basic indicators of BiH economy, as well as some indicators of its integration in the global market. The second part of the paper is dedicated to the analysis of foreign trade policy of BiH with the emphasis on the free trade agreements concluded on regional level with CEFTA countries, and free trade agreement concluded with EU by signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement. In the third part we will present the real flows of trade between the EU and BiH. The importance of the EU as a foreign trade partner of BiH will be pointed out. By the analysis of the volume, value and structure of import and export with the EU we will identify the difficulties, but also the advantages that BiH has in trade relations with EU.

• Details
• Contents