New York Times: Goražde companies fear Trump's tariffs

(Patria) - Companies producing ammunition in the Bosnian city of Goražde fear they may not survive the tariffs imposed on goods sent to their largest market - the US, writes The New York Times, as reported by Politički.ba.

The newspaper states that the companies Ginex and Pobjeda Technology in Goražde, in factories in the valley, are facing a new threat: "the sweeping tariffs that President Trump announced in early April".

"The US appetite for weapons has long provided a stable market for Goražde's main industry - arms factories built when Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of Yugoslavia, a multi-ethnic communist state that descended into war in 1991.

Now, the tariffs Trump has announced for almost all of the US's trading partners - including small BiH - have resonated in and around Goražde.

Ginex, a local company that produces primers, has halted expansion plans until it determines the tariff on its exports to the United States.

Will it be 35 percent, as Trump initially announced on April 2? A temporary revised rate of 10 percent announced a week later? Or something else," writes the NYT.

They also quote Demir Imamović, Ginex's marketing manager, who points out that even a revised rate of 10 percent would halt the company's development.

Specifically, the plan to increase the number of employees from 850 to around 1,100 has also been halted. New jobs were planned precisely because of the demands of the American market.


Photo: NYT

Shooters World, a South Carolina-based company, imported 20 million primers from Ginex last October but cancelled a shipment planned for April, partly due to tariffs, the NYT text further states.

It is also stated that BiH has increased its exports to the United States by more than 250 percent in the last five years.

However, according to data from the Ministry of Trade, this is only 1.9 percent of BiH's total exports, compared to 72 percent to the EU. The newspaper also points out that our country still imports more from the United States than it exports.

"However, for Goražde, the United States, with its desire for weapons, was a salvation," the text states.

Ginex and Pobjeda Technology, now privately owned, employ more than 2,000 people.

The American newspaper also quotes the Minister of Trade, Staša Košarac, who states that he is "very happy" that Trump has returned to the White House and who 'has not expressed interest in trying to save Bosnian arms and ammunition companies, mostly located in Muslim-majority cities like Goražde, from high US tariffs'.

"Our ministry has more important things to do," Košarac told a New York Times reporter.

The American journalist also states that 'Bosnian Muslim politicians have no interest in blocking the trade agreement with the United States, but are cautious because Dodik may use the trade issue to curry favor with President Trump in an effort to lift US sanctions against him'.

"They want Dodik arrested and imprisoned after a Sarajevo court convicted him in February for violating the decisions of the international official responsible for overseeing the Dayton Agreement.

Dodik was sentenced to one year in prison, but, protected by armed bodyguards, resisted arrest," writes the NYT.