TIRANA, June 1 – The government of Kosovo has decided not to allow the import of Serbian goods, the documents of which do not refer to Kosovo by its constitutional name.
According to the government’s decision, no cargo with Serbian goods can enter Kosovo if the ‘Republic of Kosovo’ is not written on their certificates and all of them must be provided with an entry permit issued by the Kosovo liaison office in Serbia.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced that the decision will remain in force indefinitely and is a continuation of the reciprocity measures imposed on March 31st. Since then, Serbian goods have been allowed to enter with the inscription Kosovo, but since Serbian authorities requested exports from Kosovo to place the inscription Republic of Serbia, the government in Pristina decided to respond reciprocally.
The recent move by the Kosovo government sparked outrage in Belgrade as Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić said the new measures are unacceptable and there will be no dialogue until they are lifted.
Furthermore, the European Union’s special representative for the talks between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajčák , expressed his disappointment with the new measures of the Kosovo government. In a post on his Twitter account, Lajčák said that “these unilateral actions undermine the resumption of the dialogue and should be removed immediately”. He reiterated that the parties must implement and respect the agreements reached in the past.
Avdullah Hoti from the Democratic League of Kosovo, who is mandated by President Thaçi to lead the new government, wrote that “recent actions by the incumbent government do not help the country, but trap it. It is well known that reciprocity is an organic part of our legal structure. But today we need to support dialogue with the help of our friends.” He added that the new government will remove possible obstacles to the dialogue with Serbia, through the coordination with Kosovo’s allies.
In response, PM Kurti wrote that “denying the Republic of Kosovo the principle of reciprocity means denying it the exercise of its sovereign rights. Kosovo wants fair and kist relations with its neighbors. Dialogue is between two equals and Serbia must see Kosova as an equal at every table.”
President Hashim Thaci whose decree to mandate Avduallh Hoti was recently approved by the Constitutional Court, accused Kurti of continuing his “patriotic lies through strategically wrong decisions.”
“Kosovo has gained freedom and citizenship with the support of the United States and European partners, and only with this support and partnership will there be a secure future. Any violation of these relations is a threat to the state and a threat to the future of Kosovo,” he wrote.
The government of Kosovo led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti lifted all tariffs on Serbian goods on April 1, simultaneously imposing reciprocity measures towards the country. The 100 percent tariffs on Serbian goods were first imposed in November 2018 by the government of Ramush Haradinaj, after Belgrade’s aggressive approach towards the independence of Kosovo.
This led to the suspension of talks on normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia due to Belgrade’s refusal to sit at the negotiating table until tariffs were lifted.
Former Prime Minister Haradinaj resisted international pressure to remove the tariffs until July 2019 when he resigned to appear later before a Hague-based court investigating alleged crimes committed during and immediately after the 1998-99 Kosovo War. The collapse of his government was a result of internal clashes over tariffs as well.
Kosovo’s new government headed by Albin Kurti, was subject to international pressure as well, after Kurti proposed a gradual lift of tariffs while introducing reciprocity measures towards Serbia. The US administration and President Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell put pressure on Kurti for weeks to unconditionally lift the tariff on Serbian goods, but the Prime Minister continued to follow through with his plan to gradually lift the tariff if Serbia ended the campaign against Kosovo’s independence.
Prior to the decision, Serbia was the largest exporter of products to Kosovo; before November 21, 2018 – when the 100 percent tax was imposed – Serbia exported goods worth about 1.2 million euros on a daily basis to Kosovo or about 450 million euros yearly.
