Kosovo to Restore Reciprocity Measures Against Serbia, Minister Says

Kosovo's government, led by Vetevendosje's Albin Kurti, is preparing to reintroduce reciprocity measures against Serbia, which were lifted by the former government because they were considered an obstacle to the EU-facilitated dialogue.

In an interview for BIRN's Kallxo Pernime show on Tuesday, the Minister of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, Rozeta Hajdari, said the government is preparing the grounds to revive the measures against Serbia, so keeping its election promise.

The measures are already planned, Hajdari said, adding they are being prepared "in full coordination with the cabinet, i.e. not only with one minister".

During the election campaign, in February 2021, Kurti insisted that the return of reciprocity measures was "a matter of days or weeks, not even months … it is the first thing we will do".

Hajdari, however, explained she had requested further analysis of the specifics of existing measures, emphasizing that "when we take the measures, it will be without looking back".

In April 2020, the outgoing government led also by Kurti, which was overthrown in a no-confidence motion in parliament around five days earlier, had decided to scrap a 100-per-cent tariff against products of Serbian and Bosnia origin. However, the government kept in place other so-called reciprocity measures.

Under the measures, which are now expected to return, Kosovo did not allow Serbian products to enter Kosovo unless they were registered as going to the "Republic of Kosovo" and will be controlled by Kosovo institutions on the border.

Hajdari claimed on Tuesday that "Kosovo cannot take ad-hoc measures" in order not to run up against the same problems and lack of implementation it had before.

The reciprocity...