The United States has prolonged the privileged import status for products from Bosnia and Herzegovina said Bosnia’s Foreign Trade Minister Mirko Sarovic. He notified all the exporters and businesses preparing to export goods to the US market that the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) has been prolonged by the end of 2020.

The GSP is applied retroactively thus the exporters who already paid customs duties for the goods that were previously on the duty-free import regime, can ask for a refund of customs expenses made during the GSP revision process between January and April 2018.

The GSP is a US trade program designed to promote economic growth in the developing world. Bosnia is on the list of countries that have been granted benefits on the basis of which Bosnian entrepreneurs receive preferential customs treatment for certain products when exported to the US.

Preferential exports to the US are applied to most industrial and agricultural products, as well as to certain textile products, if certain conditions, defined by the GSP preference provider country, are met.

One of the conditions is the condition of origin, which means that in order for the imported goods to be GSP-acceptable in the US, they must be fully obtained or produced in Bosnia or produced in Bosnia with at least 35 percent of added value when entering the US, and that it was directly delivered from Bosnia.