“We will work persistently against corruption and will soon turn the border crossing area from a real into a virtual border,” said Albania’s customs director Elisa Spiropali
TIRANA, Oct. 22 – Albania and Kosovo will work to turn the customs points between the two neighbouring countries into virtual borders, eliminating barriers which have often resulted in trade disputes. This was confirmed during a meeting Albania’s top customs official Elisa Spiropali held in Prishtina with her Kosovo counterpart Lulzim Rafuna.
“We will work persistently against corruption and will soon turn the border crossing area from a real into a virtual border,” said Spiropali, urging simplified procedures to ease both movement of people and goods in the border crossing points.
Kosovo’s customs director said joint working groups will be set up to eliminate barriers for the circulation of goods on both sides of the border.
Albania and Kosovo have been involved in frequent trade disputes in the past couple of years. Last August, several days of protests by Albanian and Kosovo traders forced the Kosovo government to lift the trade barriers imposed on Kosovo customs points for Albanian exports. Both Albanian exporters to Kosovo and Kosovo importers had been protesting new customs clearance procedures in some new private terminals which significantly increased costs making Albanian exports to Kosovo non-competitive. Last March, the ban of two Albanian milk brands in Kosovo because of slightly higher levels of potentially carcinogenic aflatoxin sparked a new trade dispute between Albania and neighboring Kosovo.
Back in 2012, both Albania and Kosovo were involved in trade disputes over reference prices on cement and potato exports. In August 2012, the Kosovo government decided to lift the 35 percent reference prices on imported cement after fierce reaction by both the business community in Albania and Kosovo during its 50 days in force.
Earlier in 2012, Albania introduced reference prices on Kosovo potatoes which Kosovo considered as unacceptable under the CEFTA agreement and warned of imposing reciprocity measures. However, in April 2012 reference prices for Kosovo potatoes were restored to the previous levels.
Albania’s trade exchanges with Kosovo have considerably increased in the past few years after the construction of the Highway of Nation linking the two countries in the shortest possible way despite ongoing trade barriers and disputes over reference prices, but yet remain below their potential. Data from Albania’s state Institute of Statistics, INSTAT, show Albania’s exports to neighbouring Kosovo climbed to 17.4 billion lek (Euro 122 million) in 2012, up 18.5 percent compared to 2011. Compared to 2009 when Albania finished its part of the Durres-Kukes highway, exports to Kosovo have more than doubled. Metals and minerals account for around 70 percent of Albania’s exports to neighbouring Kosovo which ranked the second most important destination of Albanian exports in 2011 and the third top destination in 2012 after Italy and Spain.
