Pristina’s 100-percent-increase in duties on products from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina could be revoked in a few days.
Pristina-based Albanian language newspaper Zeri is reporting this on its website on Wednesday, citing a source.
This source claims that the government, led by Ramush Haradnaj, has launched “a tactical retreat.”
According to the same source from the ruling coalition, Haradinaj has told international partners that if they could guarantee that Serbia would recognize Kosovo, he could immediately withdraw the decision on higher taxes.
Haradinaj said the same during a press conference on Tuesday – when he confirmed that he had received a warning from the United States on the account of increased duties on Serbian goods, and that he would not be attending the Prayer Breakfast in Washington this year as his request for a US entry visa had been denied.
Zeri writes that after receiving the warning from the US, Haradinaj “started to retreat.”
At the same time, Pristina-based analysts claim that “institutional leaders should be cautious in their rhetoric, after America made a demand to abolish the fees imposed on Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.”
According to them, “the most powerful country in the world will not give up supporting Kosovo, but recent events have been worsening relations with Kosovo’s most powerful ally,” Zeri writes.
Like the European Union, in the past few days the United States requested from the Kosovo institutions to remove the taxes as soon as possible.
The website concluded that the government has not made any decision regarding the abolition of the increased taxes and reducing them to the previous level, while Haradinaj told reporters that unless Serbia “recognized Kosovo’s independence” that measure would remain in effect “(until) 2022.”
Given that the increased taxes have already led to Haradinaj not receiving a US visa, pundits say that such political decisions could seriously undermine Pristina’s relations with the United States, Zeri said.
(Danas, 16.01.2019)
https://www.danas.rs/politika/haradinaj-se-povlaci-moguce-ukidanje-taksi/
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