Kosovo businessmans call for removal of obstacles during export to Serbia

Rafuna made these comments in Skopje, where she is attending the Western Balkan Chambers Investment Forum meeting. This meeting is subject to “co-operation among Western Balkan economies”.

The “Ide is for Serbia's Economic Oda to pressure the Serbian government to eliminate barriers that Kosovo businessmans have. On the contrary, they [during the transport of goods to Kosovo] will face the obstacles we have at”, he told Radio Free Europe.

Since Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence, Kosovo businessmans have faced various barriers in terms of exchange of goods with Serbia, since official Belgrade does not recognise Kosovo and therefore the documents issued by its institutions.

One of the obstacles producers in Kosovo face is the non-recognition of the product origin certificate, which writes “Made in Kosova”. With this inscription, Kosovo producers have no opportunity to pass even the transitor through Serbia's territory.

And the Kosovo market, Rafuna said, is filled with products from the state of Serbia.

Kosovo does not prevent any product that writes "Made in Serbia" into Kosovo. So either you have to talk about it or you do things like us, or we like you -- that is, the demand of Kosovar businessman is that there are no obstacles to”, Rafuna said, and added that Kosovar producers are interested in finding a regional market -- that they might then cross into the European market.

It is important to eliminate administrative barriers and use the low cost of transporting goods, for the fact that Pristina is only three hours away from Belgrade and only an hour away from Skopje”, Rafuna stressed.

Otherwise, during 2022, according to Kosovo Customs data, Kosovo has imported products from Serbia worth 371.6m euros, while exporting 60.7m euros of products to Serbia.

During the meeting in Skopje, Rafuna has also stressed the importance of building the highway from the Blace border to Skopje, not only for the movement of citizens, but for reducing the cost of exchange of goods.

The sooner this section of the highway is built, the better for our two states' economies”, Rafuna said.

Meanwhile, North Macedonia Economic Ode Chairman Branko Azeski stressed that the entire focus of the countries of the region should be on promoting economic development and facilitating co-operation. According to him, it is key to moving towards European integration.

Political leaders say we will go to the European Union, but do not show how. It goes to the EU with clear intentions, quality frameworks for work and powerful businesses”, he said.

“We as businesses, to accelerate the path of integration of our states into the EU offer another concept. Our concept is to unite all businesspeople in the region, put aside problems between Kosovo and Serbia, the problem with Bosnia in Northern Macedonia, and compete in the field with equal conditions, in the competitive market where all businesspeople will be equal”, he added.

The Western Balkan Chambers Investment Forum is the institution founded by the Western Balkan countries' economic and trade ops. It is founded based on the Berlin Agreement, and aims to boost economic co-operation and help attract investments to the Western Balkan region.