The SAA has conspicuously reduced access to customs, so what experts say

The latest foreign trade data in Kosovo points to a higher trade deficit for 12.6% in July 2017. Exporting goods in July 2017 was worth 38.3 million euros, while importing 275.3 million euros, which is a 26.2% increase for export, as well as 14.3% for import, compared to the same period in 2016.

The Adriatic Stavileci, spokesman in customs for Indexline, has said customs has been exactly implemented by the SAA.

The “Dogana since the first day this agreement started has implemented it correctly. Now we're in the second year of implementation and we haven't had any problems applying for the SAA, this is due to the preliminary preparations the customs has made” Stavileci said about Indexline.

The economy's recogniser, Lulzim Beqiri, for Indexline, has indicated that although the MSA lowers revenues in the budget, this space will be met with export growth and quality.

The “Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Union and Kosovo has made the Republic of Kosovo part of a market of over 500 million consumers. Under the SAA, through funds from the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA), by 2020 it will invest in Kosovo, over 600m euros. The implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (MSA) will lift Kosovo's budget of up to 24m euros only in the case of starting SAA implementation, while this loss could increase in the years ahead. The SAA envisions from the moment it goes into effect, some of the products that are not produced in Kosovo are cleared of customs duties, and in the next 10 years” has said Beqiri.

Beqiri has also cited the difficulties of this agreement in implementing this agreement.

The Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Union and Kosovo will certainly have difficulties because EU countries will export very quality products to our market and the quality of products coming from the European Union and local ones is known. So Kosovo has benefited greatly from the SAA, especially in export growth and quality growth, then necessarily increasing employment, another benefit is the importation of recent technology so that we can be even real competitors with companies from the MSA countries” is expressed by Lulzim Beqiri.

But, otherwise, economics connoisseur Mustafe Kadriaj said that since the beginning of the SAA implementation, he has been skeptical of his success.

Kadriaj says that despite the effects of this agreement still hard to assess, the SAA has so far not shown a positive result.

I was skeptical from the beginning in the five-year period. The SAA for Kosovo would have been harmful, which made me believe even more where Kosovo Customs has indicated that we have increased imports when we compare this year's first eight-month period to last year. The most serious is that even this year we have an increase in imports from the northern neighbour Serbia about 400m euros import we have this year. It is a good signal that in this period we have exported 250m euros compared to last year 210m euros. But it is not hopeful because Kosovo is still an exporter of metal, this shows that we as a country still do not have other products that penetrate the regional and wider market. With this hopeless political moment I think the economy will continue to decline because Kosovo is still not proving that it is a country of doing business”, Kadriaj has said.

The Stabilisation and Association Agreement is the first contractual agreement between Kosovo and the European Union.