Why is CEFTA important for Kosovo?

"From a fragile and relatively undeveloped manufacturing industry, Kosovo today is a source of quality products, which are sold not only in the markets of the CEFTA countries, but also beyond, in the European Union, in the United States and in other countries. others".

This is how Arian Zeka, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo, says, according to which being part of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), has helped Kosovo to improve the quality of products.

Parties to the Agreement, which aims to increase trade in goods and services, eliminate trade barriers between the parties and attract investments, are the six countries of the Western Balkans, plus Moldova, since 2006.

The previous signatories and founders of CEFTA have left it, after their membership in the EU. The implementation of the Agreement is also a prerequisite for other countries that aim to integrate into the European bloc.

How was CEFTA updated?

Her name has been mentioned often in recent days, after the request made to Kosovo by the envoy of Germany for the Western Balkans, Manuel Sarrazin, to lift the ban on goods produced in Serbia, because such a thing is against the principles of CEFTA- s.

In return, the German diplomat has offered that Kosovo be represented in CEFTA under its own name, with a footnote, and not through the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, is not convinced.

The Kosovar government has banned imports from Serbia in June 2023, on the grounds that they are endangering the security of Kosovo, and that, through them, weapons can also enter the country.

However, the Kosovo authorities have never come out with any evaluation report on how this measure has affected the level of security.

For Zeka, this measure has hit the commercial interests of Kosovo's partners.

"We considered it a paradoxical measure, considering that at the same time the import of semi-products and raw materials continues, while on the other hand, final goods, which are largely produced by foreign-owned companies in Serbia - we are talking about American capital and European capital - they are not allowed to enter the territory of the Republic of Kosovo", considers Zeka.

He also says that Kosovo's benefits from CEFTA are multidimensional, as he mentions:

• Improving the offer, or increasing the attractiveness of Kosovo in the eyes of foreign investors;

• Pursuing economic reforms;

• The radical change in the structure of exports, in the types of products and in the types of goods.

Both Zeka and Naim Rashiti, director of the Balkan Group for Politics in Pristina, say for Radio Free Europe that Kosovo should abolish the ban on imports from Serbia as soon as possible.

"Kosovo should remove these measures and should behave as a main actor, as an important and fair and reliable actor in the common regional trade", says Rashiti.

Instead of a ban, Zeka and Rashiti believe that Kosovo should use the legal mechanisms provided by CEFTA to complain about the trade barriers imposed on it by Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For the ban on imports from Serbia, Kosovo has been criticized in this year's report of the American State Department on the climate of doing business in Kosovo.

It is said there that "the ban has caused great confusion among importers and has negatively affected companies owned by foreign entities in Kosovo, due to the interruption in the supply chain".

In the Progress Report for Kosovo, for the year 2023, the European Commission has said that the ban is contrary to the spirit of the Stabilization-Association Agreement, which constitutes the only contractual agreement between Kosovo and the EU.

Why is the request repeating now?

Rashiti believes that the German insistence lies in the preparations for the next meeting within the Berlin Process - the formal platform of the EU's policy towards the Balkan region - and for the new regional agreements that are intended to be reached there.

The Berlin process aims to help develop the region and prepare it for membership in the European bloc.

The German ambassador in Kosovo, Jorn Rohde, has warned that if necessary, the Balkan countries will move forward towards regional cooperation even without Kosovo.

Rashiti says that this scenario is desired by several Balkan countries - Serbia, Bosnia and some elements within Montenegro - therefore Kosovo should not allow something like this.

"The Berlin Process and all the organizations that have derived from it, or have joined the role of the Berlin Process, are the only instrument where Kosovo sits equal with other countries. "Kosovo must, at all costs, do its best to preserve its country and push its agendas", Rashiti assesses.

Moreover, according to him, any eventual failure of the Berlin Process helps in the emergence or revival of other initiatives, such as the Open Balkans, which has been constantly opposed by Kosovo.

Zeka is afraid of "unforeseen consequences" from such an economic-political isolation of Kosovo, but does not see the readiness of the Government to lift the blockade, considering that the next elections are close./REL