More than 500 trucks in protest parade through the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina

AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS

More than 500 trucks passed through Sarajevo today in a protest parade, expressing dissatisfaction, as they previously said, with the long-standing problems in this sector, which make domestic transporters uncompetitive in the market.

The transporters claim that they have been discriminated against for years, because the state administration is constantly changing regulations and rules, without consultation and to their detriment.

They also demand an urgent reduction in border delays, through the digitalization of the customs clearance process.

In addition, the transporters are demanding that the EU suspend the 90/180 rule, according to which BiH drivers, like all citizens, can spend a maximum of 90 days in the EU within six months, which makes their business difficult and makes them uncompetitive, the transporters said.

Their fourth demand is the refund of excise duties they pay to the state, primarily at least half of the excise duties on fuel that professional transporters pay, like all citizens of BiH.

If the competent authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina do not urgently address their four key demands, international transport operators have threatened to completely block roads in Bosnia and Herzegovina on April 25.

On April 17, the Minister of Transport and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Edin Forto, said that he would form an interdepartmental working group to remove barriers that hinder the work of transport operators, as well as to accelerate the digitalization of transport, so that domestic transport operators would be as competitive as possible.

He also stated that he would appoint a transport advisor who would be in daily communication with transport operators.

Velibor Paulić, coordinator of the Consortium "Logistics BiH", stated after the meeting with the minister that EU Regulation 90/120 is a direct attack on transport operators who are the "economic lifeblood of BiH", because more than 90 percent of goods arrive in BiH by road.

"If we don't have our own, healthy economic bloodstream, we will have someone else's, and at much higher prices. And the price of transport affects the price of all products that citizens consume, from breakfast to dinner," Paulić pointed out.

He added that it is not justified for a transporter to wait 14 hours at the border to return an empty truck to BiH, and that this wait "costs" the transporter 208 hours per year per truck, and that bureaucrats have created numerous unnecessary administrative obstacles to an industry that employs 47,000 people in the last 20 years.

The Council of Ministers of BiH has previously negotiated with EU representatives on this issue, but the EU has refused to exempt drivers from the rules governing residence in the EU.

In recent years, transporters in BiH, as well as in other countries in the region, have been pointing out the pressing problems in this sector through joint protests.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost completely dependent on international road transport in its trade with EU countries.

In addition to BiH, drivers from North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Montenegro are also at risk, and drivers from Turkey and Moldova are also facing the same problem.