At the session of the Assembly of the Foreign Trade Chamber (FTC) of BiH, which was held yesterday in Trebinje, a unanimous decision was adopted to request from the competent authorities and government institutions an acceleration of the procedure for opening the new Gradiska Border Crossing, in order to ensure a faster flow of goods, especially those subject to phytosanitary and veterinary control.
It was emphasized that the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) suffers annual damage of around one billion BAM due to long waiting times at borders, and that the Gradiska Border Crossing is the lifeline of the BiH economy, since more than 90 percent of goods subject to such control are transported via this crossing.
According to the Law on the FTC of BiH, the Assembly of the FTC of BiH is the legislative body of the Chamber and consists of representatives of the BiH economy (38 representatives from the Federation of BiH (FBiH), 19 representatives from Republika Srpska (RS), and three representatives from the Brcko District).
Companies whose representatives sit in the Assembly of the FTC BiH operate through various economic associations within the Chamber, so in this way, the members of the Assembly in fact represent BiH businesspeople as a whole.
In recent years, the FTC of BiH has called for the redefinition of the status of border crossings with the Republic of Croatia. Official data points to the reasons why there are constant bottlenecks and delays at these border crossings.
Out of 15 road international border crossings with the Republic of Croatia, in 2024, around 19 percent of freight vehicles, 24 percent of buses, 13 percent of passenger vehicles, and 15 percent of persons used the Gradiska/Stara Gradiska Border Crossing, which is also one of two border crossings with BIP status (for all types of goods).
At the same time, the other border crossing with BIP status, i.e., Bijaca/Nova Sela, was used in 2024 by only 5.6 percent of freight vehicles, 18 percent of buses, 5.7 percent of passenger vehicles, and around 7.6 percent of persons.
In addition, official data show that throughout the year, towards the countries of Western and Central Europe, 94 regular bus lines out of a total of 362 bus lines to those countries (26 percent) operate via the Gradiska/Stara Gradiska Border Crossing, while only one regular bus line (0.3 percent) operates via the Bijaca Border Crossing.
Thus, all goods of plant and animal origin, more than one quarter of regular bus lines towards Western and Central Europe, are directed to one of the two border crossings with BIP status.
The Chamber’s priorities include continuous activities aimed at accelerating the flow of goods and people at border crossings, as well as redefining the status of border crossings with the Republic of Croatia, through the opening of additional border crossings for all types of goods (Donji Svilaj/Svilaj and Izacic/Licko Petrovo Selo), as well as border crossings with mutual phytosanitary controls (Orasje/Zupanja, Kamensko/Kamensko and Ivanica/Gornji Brgat), the FTC of BiH announced.
