Ana Brnabic, Serbia’s Prime Minister, denied on Wednesday her country had violated the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and said she hoped Belgrade would never have to use its military in response to the announced Kosovo army creation, the Beta news agency reported.
Some Kosovo leaders and the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama accused Serbia of violating the CEFTA by “discriminating products made in Kosovo,” but did not go into the details.
Prime Minister called on Pristina to show a complaint it “allegedly” sent to the CEFTA Committee about Serbia’s violation of the Agreement.
“If there is no any complaint, then Edi Rama consciously and deliberately misled the public in the region accusing Serbia of violating the CEFTA,” Brnabic said, commenting Rama’s statement in Zagreb about Belgrade's violation of the regional zero-tax trade agreement and Kosovo’s complaint to CEFTA about it.
Brnabic said she agreed with Rama “who admitted that the 100 percent increase of the import tariffs (on goods from Serbia and Bosnia) was not normal,” adding she was “naive” in believing that he would call on Pristina to revoke the decision.
Commenting on the announced transformation of the Kosovo Security Forces (BSK) into an army, Brnabic said she hoped Belgrade would not have to use its military in response.
But, she added, “at the moment, that’s one of the options on the table because one cannot witness a new ethnic cleansing of the Serbs and new ‘Storms’ (the 1995 Croatian military and police intervention to retake territories controlled by the rebel Serbs for four years which resulted in over 200,000 of them fleeing the country).”
Speaking to reporters in the Government building, she accused Rama of advocated that.
“My priorities are schools, theirs are riffles,” Brnabic said of Albanian leaders.
She added that neither the Council of Europe (CoE) nor OSCE responded to her requests to react to the violation of human rights of the Serbs in Kosovo, Serbia's region which declared independence in 2008 but which Serbia still disapproves.
Brnabic said Serbia was still waiting to hear whether the tariffs were introduced after Kosovo’s failure to join Interpol or because Serbia “allegedly violated CEFTA.”
Pristina introduced 100 percent import tariffs for Bosnia and Serbia a day after the two countries, which never recognised Kosovo's independence, voted against Kosovo's membership in the Interpol. Pristina authorities did not officially link the decision to the vote but accused Serbia of conducting “a wild campaign” against Kosovo membership
While Bosnia's export to Kosovo amounted about €80 million during 2017, according to the CEFTA official statistics, Serbia was a significant trade partner which exported the goods in the amount of €440 million, which was 14% of its overall export for that year.
