EU’s Borrell welcomes Kosovo’s Government decision to lift tariffs on Serbian goods

Gazeta Express

31/03/2020 23:30

EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, welcomed the decision of Kosovo’s caretaker government to abolish 100 percent tax on Serbian and Bosnia-Herzegovina goods.

Borrell said that this is an important decision amidst coronavirus crisis. “Happy to see the decision on the full lifting of tariffs by Kosovo caretaker government for goods coming from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is an important decision. Regional cooperation is key as is maintaining flow of goods, in particular in times of crisis COVID19,” Borrell said on Twitter.

Caretaker PM Kurti said Tuesday that he will drop 100 percent tariff on Serbian and BiH goods and replace them with reciprocity measures. The decision entered into force on 1 April and will be applied until 15 June when the Government will reassess the decision on implementation of the measures. He ordered the border police, Kosovo Customs and other state agencies to implement the decision. Earlier caretaker PM Kurti dropped tariffs on raw materials from Serbia and BiH. Kurti said that tariffs with Bosnia-Herzegovina will be completely dropped without introducing any new measure. He said reciprocity measures with Serbia is in line with the regional trade agreement of CEFTA and European trade practices.

Kosovo introduced a 100 percent tariffs on all Serbian imports in November 2018 to counter Serbia’s aggressive campaign against Kosovo’s statehood. Kurti who was elected as country’s prime minister on 3 February proposed his plans to gradually replace tariffs with reciprocity measures. But former junior coalition in his government – the LDK, asked Kurti to fully abolish the tariffs as requested by the United States. Despite mounting US and EU pressure Kurti proceeded with his plans to gradually replace tariffs with reciprocity. His proposal led to clash with the coalition partner of LDK who last week proposed a no-confidence vote in Kurti’s Government which toppled the Government. /GazetaExpress/