Meeting with representatives of the Federal Ministry of Health

The members of the Foreign Investors Council in BiH dealing with the distribution and sale of food supplements and special purpose foods currently have a problem which is reflected in the unnecessary duplication of collecting documentation for registration of food supplements and special purpose foods in FBiH and RS. Namely, during the registration process, companies are obliged to prepare the necessary documentation twice and pay the registration fee twice, in each entity separately. This practice creates significant costs for companies on a monthly basis, which ultimately affects the price of the product itself. In addition to costs, this practice also creates difficulties in the work of companies because they are forced to collect double documentation for the same product, which they must submit to two different geographically distant places (e.g. going to Banja Luka twice, once for submitting an application, the second time for taking an expert opinion and going to the Ministry for further processing), in the Federation of BiH, going to the Federal Institute of Public Health. Unfortunately, similar practice is present in the registration of other goods groups such as chemicals, biocides, then batch labeling and imports of food of animal origin. For example, in the Federation of BiH, the new Law on Chemicals (which is harmonized with the Law on Chemicals in RS and EU regulations) is not applied, but the practice prescribed by the old Law on Chemicals in FBiH is still present. Then, when it comes to batches, the cost of labeling per piece is 0.05 KM, which causes companies a double monthly cost of thousands of convertible marks just for labeling the batch. Furthermore, when importing food of animal origin, many companies face different import practices, the cause of which is the vague instructions of the BiH Veterinary Office regarding the declaration of products. Unclear practices and rules lead to unequal treatment of importers.