What does reciprocity foresee under International Law?

The White House's envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Ambassador Richard Green, has said Kosovo must remove the tax and is against reciprocity measures.

His spokesman, Dick Cusstin, told Free Europe Radio that Grenelli encourages Kosovo to remove the 100 per cent tax on products imported from Serbia, without reciprocity.

Meanwhile, the European Union has not yet been declared on this issue.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, days ago, warned that the 100 per cent tax, which the preliminary government had imposed on the products of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, would be lifted and replaced with the principle of reciprocity.

Very soon we start preparing Kosovo Customs for this (v.e. reciprocity). I expect Serbia to be declared willing to stop the campaign for recognising Kosovo's independence”, Kurti wrote on Facebook.

How does reciprocity apply?

International legal affairs officials in the country estimate that if Kosovo applies reciprocity measures to Serbia, they are not contrary to principles which are accepted by international law.

According to them, reciprocity, in international law, is considered a universally accepted principle, where one state approves a certain symmetric behavior in response to a similar action that has been adopted by the other state.

Fargan Qrolli, professor of International Law at the University of Pristina, tells Radio Free Europe that the most specialized definition of reciprocity in the sense of international law means that a certain state makes bilateral concessions to advantages and privileges for the purposes of trade and diplomatic relations of the other appointed state. However, this principle of reciprocity, according to him, also applies in a negative sense.

“Mbi all, looked at by international relations, reciprocity is a practical concept and is equivalent action and depends on one act or reaction of another state. To explain in practical and not very dogmatic terms, this implies that if Serbia, in this case, does not allow Kosovo citizens to enter within its territory with signposts of the Republic of Kosovo, then Kosovo answers with the same currency, so it does not allow Serbia's registration signs to enter the Republic of Kosovo”, Qrolli said.

He added that this symmetric report applies both in the economic sense, in the customs and in all other areas.

Iliriana Islami explains the principle of reciprocity, as well as professor of International Law at Pristina University. In fact, as it says of Radio Free Europe, the extent of reciprocity is milder because such measures can evolve in measures, such as retortion (retorsion) or extremes, such as representations. However, according to her, for reciprocity measures, similar to what the Government of Kosovo has warned them about, dramatic situations do not arise in the world.

The world's “, they are taken but are not treated as any case, as something considered the level that should be addressed, because it is in the mutual will of states and governments act bilaterally. So they counter the actions of a certain government. So you do not consider it a case that should be analyzed in a school area. However, they are considered more like sanctions. And they are treated, when undertaken and why they have been undertaken, because they are the only way that the state is dealt with or achieves a certain purpose, a certain state”, Islam said.

Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, has declared that Kosovo cannot apply reciprocity measures to Serbia because it does not recognise it as a state.

However, Vuciq has consistently called for the removal of the tax on Serbia's products as a condition for continuing dialogue with Kosovo.

Tax removal has also been requested by high representatives of the European Union and the United States of America.

Professor Qrolli estimates that tax removal and putting reciprocity on Serbia could positively result in both countries.

“The replacement of the tax with a measure of reciprocity may be a circumstance when it will advance the report, say, trade, diplomatic, economic, but also legal between the two states, which at the moment they sign the final Kosovo-Serbia agreement, linked to reaching a final peace, then reciprocity would be a contributing factor for encouraging and strengthening bilateral relations between Kosovo and Serbia<1>, Qorolli praised.

Professor Islami points out that despite estimates in Serbia, reciprocity to it on the part of Kosovo will be functional.

It works anyway. Despite the fact that Serbia has not recognised us, we act in accordance with our laws and constitution. So if the government takes all actions considered in accordance with laws and the Constitution, such as the highest act, it is considered a measure of a state that responds to the actions of the other state. So this is very well with international law”, Islam said.

Kosovo's prime minister, Kurti, has stated that, along with the will expressed to lift the 100 per cent tax on Serbia's products, it expects the latter to declare that there is a will to stop the campaign for recognising Kosovo's independence.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump's special envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Ambassador Richard Green, has declared days ago that Kosovo must remove the tax on goods of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Serbia must cease its campaign to withdraw Kosovo's recognitions so that dialogue can pave the way for reaching a final agreement between the two countries.