Taxes removed with Serbia, not with Kosovo

With the actual state of custom fees Albania has exchanged more goods with Serbia, while with the closest of all countries, Kosovo, the trade level was less than expected, and this difference risks getting even bigger, after the most recent custom fees policy.

Another CEFTA free trade agreement with regional countries is expected to be approved soon by the Albanian Parliament. The Albanian newspaper “Shqip” secured the new structure of the custom fee agreement with the CEFTA countries, which include Montenegro, Croatia, Moldavia, Macedonia, Serbia and Albania. All goods within these countries will be exchanged free of custom fees, based on the quota (in tons) that may reach 15%.

Kosovo should have been amongst the benefiting countries, but due to the international status recognition, Kosovo did not agree to sign the additional agreement protocol. The six CEFTA countries’ agreement was signed on November 12th 2010 in Belgrade. Like Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina also refused to sign the agreement, even with the other member states other than Serbia. Kosovo started the talks with Croatia and Macedonia, but at the end they pulled back.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the new free trade agreement came after the closure of the transitional period of the custom fees reduction for industrial products. The current fee for these products is zero, and now to be reduced are the taxes of agriculture and farming products, like egg, wine and fish.

“Referring to the profit rate of preferential tariffs due to the origin of imported agricultural goods (35-40%), and to the custom tariff with a current average of 2.4%, the state budged does not lose more than 60 million ALL”, confirms the Ministry of Economy, while the Finance Ministry said that trade exchange increase will bring in more VAT profits.

Recent fiscal changes have not been seen with a positive eye by Albanian exporters. According to them, the custom fee reduction for imported goods will damage domestic production, since the raw materials of domestic production are being purchased with a custom fee of 10%, while Croatia and Serbia will enter in the Albanian market with finalized products without paying any custom fees.

Aided by retailer networks, the imported goods from Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina increased with 50%. According to INSTAT (Albanian Institute of Statistics), import values have been 49 billion ALL, reaching its highest levels.

According to INSTAT, imports from Serbia during 2010 have had a value of 17.5 billion ALL, 65% more than in 2007, making it to the top of the list, while goods imported from Kosovo have had a value of only 3.7 billion ALL.

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