The two countries ease border and customs controls for businesses and passengers
TIRANA, Feb. 17 – Seven years after Kosovo’s independence, Albania and Kosovo have made a significant step in overcoming frequent barriers in trade exchanges by establishing the first joint transit corridor at their largest border crossing point.
It is the first step in what officials hope will be an eventual full customs union between the two countries that share the same language and culture.
The transit corridor significantly reduces costs for both Albanian and Kosovo businesses by speeding the circulation of goods and significantly cutting staying time in customs points, officials said.
“This is a great day because we give an end to a chapter of delays and barriers for enterprises operating on both sides of the border which need this border crossing not to get late, but to have it as a transit point, with no restrictions of time and bureaucracy,” said Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, adding that the customs transit had been cut from two days to only five minutes.
He added: “Today the transit of goods between Albania and Kosovo is no longer an international transit as it was considered to date, but it is a customs union, in fact a single customs office for both our countries.”
Albania and Kosovo have worked to build a joint Morine-Vermice customs point with the support of the EU. It is the second such project after Albania and Montenegro built a similar pilot entry point at Muriqan, south of Shkodra.
But the new move also means goods transiting from Albanian ports to Kosovo will not be checked twice, but only once. The deal eliminates controls in the Albania-Kosovo border, allowing transits to be closed at the destination customs.
Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa described the joint customs corridor as benefitting both businesses and citizens.
“The goal is not only to cut clearance time, but also to reduce costs which will benefit businesses directly but also consumers who will be offered lower prices,” said Mustafa.
– New shared border post inaugurated –
Albanian and Kosovar authorities on Monday inaugurated the new joint border and customs office aimed at easing controls and accelerating procedures of trade exchanges between the two neighboring countries.
Premiers from both countries inaugurated the new customs check point hailing it as another step toward consolidation of closer ties between the two neighboring countries.
Rama said the move was another step which was decided at the last joint meeting of the two governments in Prizren last year.
The two countries are also discussing more steps toward the custom insurance, he said.
The Morine border crossing point will also be widened and in summer, when hundreds of thousands of Kosovars travel to Albania’s seaside.
Albania has decided to scrap normal border checks for the visitors and stop checking individual cars, focusing on stopping them at random.
“There will be very casual, relaxed checks,” Rama said.
Kosovo Prime Minister Mustafa hoped said it was a sign of economic cooperation as part of EU integration.
“Lack of borders between Kosovo and Albania is an expression of our goals to get integrated into the EU,” he said. “All our joint interests are achieved as part of the big European family.”
Albanian and Kosovar officials have repeatedly said they are not seeking to join the two countries into one before EU membership for both, and Albania says it supports and independent and prosperous Kosovo.
However, there are proponents of national unification on both sides, but the numbers remain a minority, surveys indicate.
By the end of March, the governments of Albania and Kosovo will hold their second joint meeting, where the focus will be the cooperation in infrastructure, education and culture.
– Trade exchanges have fluctuated
Trade exchanges and movement of people between the two countries have significantly increased in the past few years, especially after the construction of the Highway of Nation cutting travel time between Tirana and Prishtina.
However, ongoing trade disputes between Albania and Kosovo have considerably curbed trade exchanges between the two neighboring countries in the past couple of years. The latest dispute erupted last October when Albanian food authorities temporarily banned the import of flour from Kosovo because of allegedly not meeting the required protein content, causing considerable damage to Kosovo traders, considering that flour accounts for around 15 percent of total Kosovo exports to Albania.
Back in 2013, Albania also temporarily banned the entry of Kosovo flour to Albania in retaliation for the ban of Albania milk to Kosovo due to alleged higher toxic and carcinogenic substances known as Aflatoxins.
A study by Kosovo’s GAP Institute for Advanced Studies says the latest incident unveils lack of communication and coordination between Albanian and Kosovo authorities despite trade facilitation deals signed between the two governments in a joint meeting in Prizren in January 2014.
Albania’s exports to Kosovo registered a 15 percent increase in 2014, climbing to a record high of 18.7 billion lek (Euro 131 million), ranking the neighbouring country the country’s second most important destination of exports.
Several disputes over tariffs and barriers considerably affected trade exchanges between Albania and Kosovo in 2013 and for the first time since 2009, Albania’s exports to Kosovo registered negative growth rates.
Albania is Kosovo’s second most important trade partner after Italy accounting for 15 percent of its exports and 4.5 percent of imports, most of which are still covered by Serbia with 11.7 percent, according to data by the Kosovo Agency of Statistics for 2013.
