Kurt doesn't listen to America, the tax is removed tomorrow but reciprocity is set

On the basis of that decision, it has been said that the government of Kosovo, on April 1st, will make a decision to abolish past government decisions -- November 21st and November 28th -- in 2018, when taxes were imposed on imports from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Kosovo's incumbent Deputy Prime Minister, Haki Abazi, told Radio Free Europe that all these measures will be decided based on the actions of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina towards Kosovo.

“All these measures are at the level of real reciprocity, the practice of applying policies that Serbia makes to goods and trade aspect with Kosovo”, Abazi said.

These measures mostly fall into the field of free movement, people, transportation vehicles and that Serbia does not accept registration signs and oblige Kosovo citizens to make replacements with temporary documents. Also, in the application of measures there are levels of arbitrariity, for example, no certificates of products or naval certificates” are accepted, Abazi said.

“We have cases that even during the transfer of goods through Serbia's territory for European Union countries, there are also barriers that prevent the movement of goods on Serbia's territory”, Abazi told Radio Free Europe.

He says Serbia has consistently applied measures that have damaged Kosovo producers, not respecting the (CEFTA) Free Trade Agreement, which he says has made it impossible for reports that go to economic stability.

The “of course is in the decisions of Kosovo institutions to protect the country's interests. We have non-tariff barriers Serbia has applied despite the fact that we have the CEFTA agreement”, he said.

“A positive development occurred during German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conversation and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, when the latter has shown readiness to negotiate in the process of dialogue to remove these non-tarifore barriers”, said incumbent Deputy Prime Minister Haki Abazi.

Kosovo Customs officials, however, claim they are willing to implement any decision by the Government of Kosovo. The Adriatic Stavileci, in a proposal for Radio Free Europe, stresses that Customs only awaits instructions from the Kosovo Government.

“Normically, Dogana implements the measures the Government of Kosovo takes. Normally, also the decision on reciprocity and any decision by the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, Dogan will respect to the maximum”, he said.

Since the removal of the first class import tax from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Stavileci said goods worth about 1m euros have entered Kosovo.

Otherwise, the 100 per cent customs fee was imposed by the past Kosovo government, former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, in November 2018.

Since the introduction of the tax on products imported from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, imports from these countries have dropped by 99 percent.

Before the customs tax was imposed, Serbia was the largest exporter of products in Kosovo. This state, before November 21st, of 2018 when taxes were imposed 100 per cent during one day has exported goods worth about 1.2m euros or about 450m euros in one year to Kosovo.

The 100 per cent tax on imports from Serbia has influenced dialogue on normalisation of reports between Kosovo and Serbia to end. Against this tax, since its deployment, the United States of America and the European Union had been declared, as dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia had since been interrupted.

A reciprocity measure against Serbia, Kosovo had applied it in July 2011.

This reciprocity measure at the time was taken after Serbia for three years after declaring independence in Kosovo in 2008 had blocked goods from Kosovo due to the shift of seals from UNMIK to those of the Republic of Kosovo.