Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been damaged by 4.5 million U.S. dollars since Kosovo government introduced taxes on products from BiH, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH Mirko Sarovic said for Klix.ba news portal.
The Kosovo Government adopted the decision to introduce protective measures for imports of all products produced in Serbia and BiH at the beginning of November this year, putting a 10 percent tax on all products and afterwards, increased the tax to 100 percent.
“For a month of applying tax on goods from BiH, goods less for 4.5 million BAM were exported to Kosovo, in relation to the same period last year when goods worth almost 12 million BAM were exported,” Sarovic told us.
Sarovic added that the increase of the tax cannot be tolerated and that it is completely opposed to the basic principles of trade within CEFTA and that the common goal of Serbia and BiH is to abolish these measures and to start talks.
Serbian Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajic said that the direct damage to Serbia since the introduction of Kosovo’s tax amounts to as much as 34.6 million euros, while the indirect damage is several times bigger.
