Macedonia Hopes to Gain From Serbia-Kosovo Trade Row

Macedonia's Ministry of Economy has pledged to help Kosovo replace some of the Serbian products that are now banned from entering Kosovo.

“This is a chance for our companies and will certainly led to an increase in exports,” Selvet Baruti, spokesperson of the Economy Ministry, predicted on Wednesday.

She told Balkan Insight that the ministry is actively mulling ways to increase exports to its neighbour and officials plan to raise this issue as part of their regular talks with Kosovo’s authorities.

“Serbia exports goods worth some 20 million euros to Kosovo each month so we hope that part of these products will be replaced with Macedonian-made goods, especially food products,” Baruti said.

Kosovo is already among Macedonian's top trading partners, taking second place after Germany.

Statistics show that in the first five months of this year Macedonia exported goods worth 130 million euros to Kosovo while importing only about 9 million euros from there.

Menderes Kuci, head of the Economic Chamber of South Western Macedonia, urges investing in a long-term effort to boost cross-border trade, suggesting “construction of the long-awaited highway from Skopje to Prishtina”.

Skopke is very close to the Kosovo frontier but Macedonia has yet to build the 10 kilometres of highway leading from the capital to the border. The new government platform mentioned the highway as a priority but gave no actual date for a start to construction.

Kosovo's Ministry of Transport recently told Balkan Insight it was determined to build its 55 kilometres leading to the border with Macedonia despite the pressures on the local budget of constructing a much longer highway to Albania. Again no date for start of the works was given.

Kosovo banned imports from Serbia on July 20 in response to Serbia's refusal to abide by the terms of the Central Europe Free Trade Agreement, CEFTA, allowing free movement of goods in the region.

The decision followed the failure of the two governments to agree on recognizing Kosovo customs stamps and other free trade issues. This led to the cancellation of the sixth round of EU-moderated talks between the two sides in Brussels earlier in July.

Serbia banned imports from Kosovo after Kosovo declared independence in February 2008. Belgrade maintains that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia.