Serbia suffers millions in losses due to Kosovo blockade on products
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After implementing a ban on Serbian transport vehicles in June, Serbia's losses have exceeded $40 million in less than two months.
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NATO soldiers greet a truck driver near the town of Zubin Potokon August 1, 2022. (AFP)
Serbia's economy has lost over 40 million euros since mid-June after the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo imposed a ban on the import of Serbian-made goods, Kosovar media reported.
The ban stops all transport vehicles holding Serbian license plates from entering Kosovar claimed territories. The President of the Alliance of Kosovo Businesses, Agim Shahini said goods originating from Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Albania are being sources to replace the estimated 370 million euros worth of goods being imported from central Serbia each year. He added that Serbia's daily losses amount to 1 million euros after taking into account collateral damage.
The head of the Centre for Regional Cooperation at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Aleksandar Radovanovic, stated that before the blockade, Kosovo and Metohija imported 1.3 million euros worth of goods a day from Serbia two-thirds of which came in the form of unfinished products or raw material.
On July 8, Kosovo's government lifted some of the restrictions to allow for the entry of artificial fertilizers, animal feed, raw materials, semi-finished goods, machinery, equipment, and production facilities.
"The Serbian economy has so far suffered losses of over 40 million euros due to the blockade. Kosovo is also suffering losses, but less ... Goods worth about 370 million euros are imported from central Serbia to Kosovo every year, but now they are being replaced on the market by goods from Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Albania, which are more expensive than Serbian ones," the president of the Alliance of Kosovo Businesses, Agim Shahini, told the Kosovo Online news portal.
Read more: Wikileaks cables show US attempted to engineer Kosovo's independence
In late May this year, thousands of ethnic Serbs residing in northern Kosovo rallied in front of administrative buildings to protest against the appointment of ethnic Albanian mayors.
Kosovo security forces and NATO's Kosovo Forces (KFOR) were deployed near the town halls of Zvecan, Leposavic, and Zubin Potok where violent clashes erupted.
"All this is organized by Albin Kurti [Kosovo's Prime Minister], with his great desire for a conflict between the Serbs and NATO to take place, and he is the only one guilty of what is happening," Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in an address to the citizens, adding that 52 Serbs have were injured in the clashes.
In 2008, Kosovo seceded from Serbia and unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia. An agreement to improve relations between Serbia and Kosovo was struck in 2013, but the conversation quickly came to a halt. Since mid-2022, tensions at the border have been building, occasionally rising into road closures in northern Kosovo.
In early March, Vucic announced that he is not willing to recognize Kosovo's independence nor permit it to join the United Nations despite heightened EU pressure to isolate his country.
Serbia's leader also revealed that the European Union has threatened to isolate Serbia and pull out all investments if the proposed Kosovo agreement was discarded.
