Albania bans farmers to exchange wheat with Kosovo

TIRANA, July 10 – While the Kosovo government continues applying a 35 percent reference on imports of cement from Albania, a decision which has severely affected local producers, Albania has also imposed kind of reciprocity measures with wheat produced by local farmers in the northeastern town of Kukes bordering Kosovo.
Kosovo’s daily Express reports Albanian customs authorities have not allowed Kukes farmers to exchange wheat for flour with the Xerxe mill in Kosovo. This the first time this action has been taken as part of fight against tax evasion but also protection of domestic production.
Ali Tota, the director of the Kukes Customs Office, says the exchange of wheat with flour in Kosovo mills, which has earlier been tolerated, runs counter to the Customs Code.
A Kosovo government decision to impose reference prices on imported cement at rate of 35 percent has sparked fierce reaction among Albania’s business community which says a new barrier is being imposed in trade exchanges between the two neighbouring countries just after Albania lifted a trade barrier on Kosovo potatoes. The decision taken by Kosovo Trade and Industry Minister Mimoza Lila Kusari favour Sharrcem, a local company part of Greece’s Titan.
Business Associations in Albania and Kosovo have strongly opposed trade barriers between the two countries initially with Kosovo’s potato and now with cement from Albania as damaging prospects to create a pan-national market.
“Unreasonable delays and legal barriers of the Albanian and Kosovo governments are impeding the creation of a pan-national market of 7 million people as a necessity for the economic development and the welfare of all Albanian citizens,” says the Konfindustria Association in Albania.
Lack of coordination in economic legislation and protectionist decisions devalue and lower the efficiency of joint road infrastructure investments worth around Euro 2 billion, says Konfindustria’s general administrator Gjergj Buxhuku.