Bosnia and Herzegovina recorded a decline in exports in 2024. In addition to disruptions in the global market, drivers and exporters face administrative barriers and other obstacles on a daily basis. Additional fear is created by the fact that the European Union will charge a carbon tax from 2026.
Zegdin Šehović has been driving a truck outside Bosnia and Herzegovina for 42 years. He is on the road five days a week, sleeping in the truck, and the hardest part, he says, is waiting at border crossings. He adds that he earns about three and a half thousand marks on average and enjoys his job.
“If you want to earn money, you have to work. We drive nine hours effectively according to the law. We are paid, I am satisfied,” says Zegdin Šehović.
However, there are fewer and fewer professional drivers. Employers say that, due to European Union rules, many go to work in other countries, although the salaries are approximately the same.
“The problems of counting days for our drivers within the European Union, constant levies within the EU, increases in road tolls, introduction of some new control systems, they constantly control our drivers. As soon as they see the license plates of BiH, there are the police,” emphasizes Muharem Berbić, director of Tuzlatrans.
While the European rule of stay of drivers for up to 90 days drives the workforce out of the country, exporters are threatened with additional problems, because from the first day of 2026 they will also pay a tax on carbon dioxide, that is, on products that are not obtained from renewable energy sources. This will also cause great damage to the Tuzla Canton as the backbone of economic development.
“It will certainly be an amount that will not reduce competitiveness in its entirety, but will shut down those companies, because they will not be competitive on the foreign market, and we know that we have dozens of such economic entities,” emphasizes the Minister of Economy of the Canton of Tuzla Edin Duraković.
Gherkin exporter Fahrudin Delibajrić states that there were no exports this year either, and the tax will certainly further set back economic development.
“We will then be completely uncompetitive and our goods will be difficult to pass through on markets that are very harsh, and our largest market is the European Union countries,” says Delibajrić.
Then, adds Delibajrić, it will not be justified to carry out certain production. The Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH confirms to BHRT that by December 2024, a 4.32 percent drop in exports was recorded compared to the same period last year. The decrease in exports is closely related to weaker demand for BiH products, they say. What’s next from 2026?
