 |
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said his government has decided to totally exempt imports of raw materials from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In a post, he said the decision was made by 10 votes and two abstentions at a cabinet meeting that did not include the ministers of the Democratic League of Kosovo.
“Tonight, at 24:00 pm we will open six border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia, for import of raw material. Until April 1, the Government of Kosovo will issue another decision on imposing reciprocity measures instead of 100% tariff ”, he wrote.
The final decision is in line with Mr. Kurti's stance on February 26 on the conditional lifting of tariffs on Serbian goods, which was not backed by the Democratic League of Kosovo and was described as a "half measure" by Ambassador Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump 's special envoy for the Kosovo - Serbia peace talks.
The disagreement over tariffs between Prime Minister Kurti and the Democratic League of Kosovo caused divisions that culminated on Wednesday with the dismissal of the interior minister.
The Democratic League, which had urged Mr. Kurti to fully abolish tariffs on US demand, submitted a motion on Friday on Kosovo Parliament to overthrow the Government.
In November 2018, the Kosovo government imposed 100 percent tariffs on Serbian goods in opposition to Belgrade's approach to Kosovo citizenship.
Belgrade conditioned the continuation of talks on normalizing relations with Kosovo by lifting those tariffs, but the former government of Ramush Haradinaj rejected any Western diplomacy efforts to persuade him to do so.
On Friday, he strongly criticized Prime Minister Kurti's decision.
In a post on social networks, he said the outgoing government could not leave without removing the tax! In point 1 the tax on raw material is abolished and in point 3 of the decision obliges itself to completely abolish the tax in April 1. This has devalued the counter value of the final deal and completely lost its credit to international partners, especially the US. Just as it had a shameful start, the outgoing Government is also going with shame,” he wrote.
Haradinaj has backed the Democratic League's motion to topple the government.