BiH is recording an increasing growth of exports of weapon and military equipment from year to year, and it amounted to 193.8 million BAM in the year of 2017, which is about 22 million BAM more in comparison to the year of 2016 when the value of exports amounted to 171 million BAM.
“A total of 5.9 million kilograms of weapons, ammunition, and its parts were exported in the year of 2017, and its value amounted to 193.868.808, 28 BAM,” as noted from the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH.
As in previous years, BiH exported the most of its products to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and the United States, but also in Egypt, Turkey, Serbia, Indonesia, Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, Switzerland and Romania.
Companies that are dealing with the production of weapons receive licenses for the export of weapons from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, but all of those exports are usually not entirely realized. These licenses are mostly issued on one year and companies rarely manage to realize all 100 % of approved amounts. The company needs to obtain the approval of several ministries at the level of BiH before the license for export is issued, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to the information of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, the value of the issued permits amounted to 305 million EUR in the year of 2016, which is a record in post-war BiH, but there is no data on the final realization of these contracts. The total foreign trade exchange amounted to more than 477 million EUR, on the basis of licenses issued in the year of 2016, and in comparison to the previous years, it represented an increase of 85 %.
In the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH stated that a total of 201 licenses were issued for export in 50 countries in 2016, as well as 117 permits for import from 30 countries.
“Three requests for weapons and military equipment licenses in the amount of 351,566 EUR were rejected, as well as one request for import of weapon and military equipment in the total amount of 102,903 EUR,” as stated in the official information of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH.
(Source: akta.ba)
