Describes the country's standards landscape, identifies the national standards and accreditation bodies, and lists the main national testing organization(s) and conformity assessment bodies.
Last Published: 7/22/2019

Overview

After the breakup of Yugoslavia, BiH inherited more than 11,000 Yugoslav standards and by-laws (known as “JUS” standards) and a number of those standards still remain in force.  Identical regulations and standards are applied to both domestic and imported goods, regardless of the country of origin.
 

Standards

As of January 1, 2007 the former BiH Institute for Standardization, Metrology and Intellectual Property was broken into three separate institutes:

  1. BiH Institute for Standardization

  2. BiH Institute for Metrology

  3. BiH Institute for Intellectual Property Rights (“IPR Institute”)

BiH standards are designated per the BAS Standard. BiH is a member of the following international organizations for standardization:

  • International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

  • International Electro-technical Commission (IEC)

  • European Committee for Standardization (CEN)

  • European Committee for Electro-technical Standardization (CENELEC)

  • European Telecommunications Standards (ETSI)


NIST Notify U.S. Service
Member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are required under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) to report to the WTO all proposed technical regulations that could affect trade with other Member countries.
Notify U.S. is a free, web-based e-mail subscription service that offers an opportunity to review and comment on proposed foreign technical regulations that can affect your access to international markets.
 

Conformity Assessment

The Institute for Standardization is the main conformity assessment body in BiH.  There are other testing organizations in BiH; a list of these institutions can be obtained from the Institute for Standardization.

For information on testing/conformity assessment for food and agricultural products, please see the Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards and Exporter Guide.

For information on laboratories authorized for testing genetically engineered products, please see the Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards  (Section VII: Other Specific Standards and Appendix I).
Product Certification
Product certification is required to ensure that the product has undergone appropriate testing and conforms to relevant regulations.  USDA has additional agriculture-related information at the following two websites: Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards and Exporter Guide. There are no existing Mutual Recognition Agreements with U.S. organizations.
 

Accreditation

The BiH Accreditation Institute is the main institution for accrediting testing organizations in the country.  Before placing a product on the market in BiH, the manufacturer or its authorized representative in BiH must assess whether the product conforms to current technical regulations.  The Law on Technical Requirements defines the assessment procedures for Products and on Conformity Assessment.  Conformity documents and markings issued abroad are recognized in BiH, if they are issued in accordance with the international agreements on mutual recognition of documents of which BiH is a signatory.  The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations may recognize the validity of conformity documents and conformity markings issued in the countries with which BiH has not signed international agreements if they have been issued in accordance with technical regulations that are equivalent to those adopted by BiH, and if the competence of the bodies that carried out the conformity assessment has been verified according to the same requirements as those prescribed for such bodies by BiH regulations.

Publication of Technical Regulations
The BiH Institute for Standardization publishes a bulletin of standards.  Technical regulations are published in the Official Gazette of BiH, Official Gazette of FBiH, and the Official Gazette of RS.  U.S. companies can comment directly to the Institute.

Most food and agricultural products are subject to sanitary, phytosanitary and quality standards.  To learn more about these technical regulations please see the Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards and Exporter Guide.
 

Contact Information

BiH Institute for Standardization
BiH Institute for Intellectual Property Rights
BiH Accreditation Institute
BiH Indirect Taxation Administration
BiH Foreign Investment Promotion Agency
Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Program

Point of Contact at Post:
United States Embassy Sarajevo
Economic/Commercial Section
Robert C. Frasure 1
71000 Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Phone:  +387-33-704-000
Fax: +387-33659-722
Email: sarajevocommercialservice@state.gov

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