Kosovo Lifts Trade Hurdles to Pave Way for Talks With Serbia

(Bloomberg) -- Kosovo removed trade restrictions with Serbia, paving the way for the restart of talks with its northern neighbor, just days after the government of Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti was sworn in, Serbian state TV RTS reported.

The decision, effective immediately, will only be temporary and depend on the results of the dialog. Kosovo also expects Serbia to stop campaigning against full international recognition of its independence.

Kosovo, one of Europe's poorest nations, is still struggling to gain full international recognition after declaring independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after a war that ended with a NATO bombing campaign against Belgrade-backed forces. It imposed a retaliatory 100% tax on imports from Serbia in 2018 in response to Belgrade lobbying against Kosovo's membership in international bodies, stalling the European Union-mediated talks.

Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci welcomed the decision, noting that Serbia has so far used the barriers “as a pretext to block the dialog for the normalization of interstate relations between the state of Kosovo and Serbia,” according to his Facebook. “Now international pressure must be directed at Serbia in order to resume dialog without wasting time, which must end with mutual recognition between the two countries.”

Serbia said the free flow of goods will bolster economic cooperation, “one of the key ingredients of a normalization of relations.” President Aleksandar Vucic told private TV broadcaster Prva that efforts to restart talks, which Serbia sees as a chance to win some concessions from the West, will resume later this month when EU mediator Miroslav Lajcak visits Belgrade and Pristina, following June 21 general elections in Serbia.

Tough Battle Ahead

“We are facing six months or a year of tough political battle and we should not be raising the expectations of our people, but we must be strong enough,” Vucic said. He expects to talk soon again with U.S. envoy Richard Grenell and “all the others involved in resolving the Kosovo issue.” Any decision to reject an accord with Kosovo would lead Serbia to new international isolation, he said.

The two nations appeared to have been near a breakthrough in the summer of 2018, floating an idea of redrawing borders, which received a chilly response from the EU at the time amid fears that new demarcations could spur similar demands across the region, where ethnic strife killed more than 100,000 people during the violent breakup of Yugoslavia.

The EU is trying to maintain a dominant role in the talks between Serbia and Kosovo, as both have turned to their traditional allies including the U.S., Russia and China -- which are also vying for influence in a region where countries are slow to embrace the democratic and economic reform required for EU membership.