Information relating to the issuance of licenses for export of arms from Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

Law on Control of foreign trade in goods and services of strategic importance for the security of Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Official Gazette of BiH ", No. 103/09) prescribes the conditions and procedure for performing foreign trade in goods and services of strategic importance for BiH.

In the process of issuing licenses to conduct foreign trade this ministry is required to obtain prior authorization from: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Security and Ministry of Defence, as prescribed by Article 8 of the said Law.

We point out that Article 9 of the Law on Control of foreign trade in goods and services of strategic importance for the security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, explicitly prescribes the jurisdiction of these institutions when giving preliminary approval, and provides that:

-              Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes care of: the UN Security Council, OSCE and EU prohibition and sanctions ; adopted international obligations, foreign policy interests, the specific interests of BiH in relation to strategic partners of BiH foreign policy; the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports, as well as the principle of nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction;

-          Ministry of Security shall ensure that the permit is issued in accordance with the Security Policy of BiH;

-          BiH Ministry of Defence ensures that the permit is issued in accordance with the Defence Policy.

What we want to stress is the fact that in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina all licenses for weapons and other military equipment export were issued after all of the above permissions from the competent institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina were submitted, and that this ministry has complete records and documentation on licensing available to authorized institutions and OSA through the electronic system TRACKER.

The ministry, in order to prevent the misuse or diversion of goods, prescribed that exporters, after the delivery has been realized, must submit delivery confirmation from the end user, as regulated in the Instruction on the conditions and procedure for issuing documents for foreign trade in goods and services of strategic importance for the security of BiH ("Official Gazette" No. 19/10).