Is Kosovo violating the CEFTA Agreement?

It is Macedonia's authorities, which have stressed that they have not been informed in time by the Government of Kosovo for establishing this safeguard clause for agricultural products, which according to official Skopje, is Kosovo's duty, as it is part of CEFTA.

However, Kosovo authorities had indicated that the decision was taken as a safeguard clause for agricultural products and is based on legal competencies and relevant provisions of the CEFTA Agreement.

Flamur Keqa, former director of the Trade Department under the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 2011, when Kosovo managed CEFTA, told Radio Free Europe that this deal envisions free movement of goods, without such obstacles.

With the deal, CEFTA is the first to show that all products and goods between states that are members of CEFTA are free to move without the introduction of different taxes, but the practice shows us that other states in particular and not Kosovo in the past have placed obstacles to import by trying to protect local products. In this context I also see it reasonable and supported Kosovo's decision to take steps to stop import for certain products”, Keqa points out.

CEFTA is an international project established by the European Union, aimed at facilitating the trade exchanges of Western Balkan countries. Kosovo has been a member of this mechanization since 2007.

The executive director of the American Chamber of Economics in Kosovo, Arian Zeka, tells Radio Europe that he believes that Kosovo has analysed all provisions of the CEFTA agreement and done respective research before making such a decision in order to avoid any punishment or any other consequences it may face.

“I cannot conclude at the moment whether Kosovo has committed any violations or no. The CEFTA agreement when it was signed has been the product of the lack of proper negotiations by Kosovo authorities, the UNMIK administration as signatories respectively, and has not subsequently reflected all of Kosovo's” needs.

The other “states have specific products and sectors which have the right to protect at specific times of the year, but the same is not valid for Kosovo and Bosnia, which seem to have not negotiated any particular product or sector for which they can apply protection for specific periods within”, Zeka notes.

Kosovo's trade relations with neighbouring countries over the years were being conveyed with various problems.

The countries of the region, such as Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania, did not rarely have trade barriers to Kosovo products, thus damaging Kosovo's economy.

Larger trade bars against Kosovo had made Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which only months after the declaration of independence, had banned Kosovo's products, due to the change of the UNMIK stamp of Customs to Kosovo Customs.

Macedonia, meanwhile, had placed barriers to Kosovo products, as has been the case with liquor products and flour.

Until, Albania had long applied the reference price for potatoes produced in Kosovo.

Meanwhile, Flagur Bad connoisseur of the field stresses that the trade ministry's decision to impose customs duties on agricultural products entering Kosovo would be argued if it had the effect of supporting local production.

I hope that the Ministry of Commerce and relevant dictatorships have done sufficient analysis that the local product is really supported by this measure. I would not have wanted it to be a measure taken that has no effect but only for propaganda. And actually if you want to protect the products on the list before I supported that measure, because this measure and these are undertaken from all members that are part of CEFTA, Keqa points out.

The high trade deficit continues to pose an important challenge to Kosovo's economy. Exporting goods according to data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency for May of this year was worth 32.8m euros, while importing 310.6m euros.