Flags of origin of goods are not being placed in many stores

This decision has entered into force in February of this year, shortly after the establishment of the 100 per cent customs tax for all products imported from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Trade and Industry Ministry officials say they are monitoring the implementation of this instruction, but, according to them, the small number of field inspectors may not always respond to guidance.

However, Market Chief Inspector Under the Ministry of Trade and Industry Lulzim Syla, in a conversation for Radio Free Europe, says the market inspector has fined about 150 businesses, which have not respected the decision to deploy product origin flags.

He shows that the inspectors of this ministry have only 14 inspectors, while for a physical monitoring of this instruction, he says municipal inspectors should be engaged.

The fine is issued immediately of 1,000 euros. The security inspector within the MTI has given 74 fines, while the market inspector has fined 72 subjects. So, in general, 146 fines have been pronounced just for not setting up origin flags”, Syla suggests.

On the basis of the directive, if businesses fail to comply with administrative guidelines, fines between 1,000 and 20,000 euros could follow. If businesses have failed to set up all flags, but only in part, they are sentenced to 1,000 euros. But if they have completely bypassed the flag-set process, then the subjects will be prosecuted in the courts of Kosovo, where the sentence could reach between 5 and 20 thousand euros.

Free Europe Radio has recorded several cases in the shopping mall in Pristina, where it does not figure the origin flag near the appropriate product.

That is true of some citizens. Blerina Feyza, a consumer at one of the shops in the capital, says she often faces products without origin flags.

I just got out of the store and I saw that all products don't have origin flags. Although they used to have more, but there were a lot of absences now”, Blerina from Pristina says.

Even the leader of the Nongovernmental Organisation “Consumer”, Ceatin Kacanik, in a campaign for Radio Free Europe, says that in addition to not placing the origin flag close to the items exposed for sale, in many cases the state flag does not match the origin of goods in the retail window.

The non-compliance of the state flag with the origin of the product, according to Kacanik, mainly occurs when dealing with products from Serbia.

These few business subjects that respect the flag have to do with a conflict of another nature, because they put the flag that was truncated. Or it's an import origin flag, but it's not the flag of product origin. In this way they (atfaresters/businesss) deceive the consumer citizen, and of course the instruction is violated”, Kachanik says.

The administrative guidance for setting product origin flags was in force shortly after the introduction of a 100 per cent tax on products originating from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Seting a 100 percent tax continues to be effective. The outgoing government of Kosovo, so far, has not backed down on this decision, even after many demands from the European Union and the United States of America on suspending or canceling this tax.

In contrast, the two political parties -- currently in talks on forming the future Kosovo government, the Vetevendosje Movement -- as the winner of general elections held on 6 October and the Democratic League of Kosovo, such as the second party issued by these elections, have warned that customs tax on Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will be replaced by reciprocity.