Kosovo not ready to lift 100% tariff on Serbia, Bosnia goods
The Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 2 months AGO
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Kosovo will not lift its 100% tariff on goods from Serbia and Bosnia any time soon because the coalition government could not agree on whether the import taxes should be phased out or abolished all at once, the country's prime minister said Friday.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti said his left-wing Self-Determination Movement, or Vetevendosje, wanted to lift the tariff in phases, starting Sunday with raw materials imported from Serbia, as a goodwill gesture.
The party's main governing partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, wants the import taxes dropped completely. Kurti wants abolishment of the tariffs made conditional on Serbia stopping an international campaign against Kosovo's recognition as a country.
The coalition partners have not found a compromise, Kurti said.
“In the absence of a government decision … everything remains as it is, the 100% tax remains,” he said.
The United States and European Union also want Kosovo to do away with the tariffs and to resume talks with Serbia on normalizing ties.
Kosovo imposed the punitive tariffs in November 2018 over Serbian efforts to block Kosovo from joining international organizations. The dispute led to the suspension of the EU-mediated talks, which started in 2011.
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic has described Kurti’s proposed phase-out as a trick.
Kosovo was formerly a part of Serbia and won independence after a 1999 NATO bombing campaign that ended a bloody Serb crackdown on an armed uprising by members of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority. Serbia refuses to accept Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence.
MORE IMPORTED STORIES
Kosovo not ready to lift 100% tariff on Serbia, Bosnia goods
Columbia Basin Herald | Updated 5 years, 2 months ago
US opposes Kosovo’s 'new barriers' to Serbian goods
Columbia Basin Herald | Updated 5 years, 1 month ago
Kosovo offers to ease tariff on neighboring Serbia's goods
Columbia Basin Herald | Updated 5 years, 2 months ago
ARTICLES BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Latest: US helped family escape Afghanistan overland
WASHINGTON — The United States is confirming for the first time that it has helped a U.S. citizen and family members to escape Afghanistan through an overland route to a neighboring country.
The Latest: US helped family escape Afghanistan overland
WASHINGTON — The United States is confirming for the first time that it has helped a U.S. citizen and family members to escape Afghanistan through an overland route to a neighboring country.
The Latest: Top Republican says Taliban holding Americans
WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee says some Americans who have been trying to get out of Afghanistan since the U.S. military left are sitting in airplanes at an airport ready to leave but the Taliban are not letting them take off.