PRISHTINA – As a result of the Kosova-Türkiye trade agreement for the removal of customs duties on numerous products, mainly industrial, Türkiye has doubled its export to Kosova in the last four years.

According to the data of the Kosova Agency of Statistics, during the year 2022, Türkiye was the main trading partner of Kosova, while the situation remains the same even in the first four months of this year.

In the last ten years, Kosova has imported goods from Türkiye worth about 4.5 billion euros, while Kosova, for the same period of time, has exported about 120 million euros of goods to the Turkish state.

The large import of goods can put local producers in a disadvantageous position, warn the business community.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kosova (CCIK) estimates that whenever the import increases, the local producer is not favored. The same is said by the Chamber of Commerce of Kosova. According to them, priority should be given to increasing production in Kosova.

The director of CCIK, Zana Beqiri, tells Kosova Press that the state should come up with better policies for subsidizing local products.

“The problem is that when the import from any country increases, then this does not help the local product. In general, the largest import, if the demand in the market has not changed, then the import has won in relation to the domestic product.
As a state, we must come up with better policies for subsidizing local products, but also for subsidizing exports. We have a number of products that are exported abroad, but the only favorable policy we do is tax discounts, VAT for export, which is not enough at all.
Like other countries, the state should also provide subsidies for businesses that export, especially those that increase local production and employment”, says Beqiri.

The President of the Chamber of Commerce of Kosova (CCK), Lulzim Rafuna, says that more work should be done to increase production in Kosova. According to him, more support from the state is needed so that local producers can increase their capacities.

“Every import that comes is not good for our country, because the good thing is to increase production and for this reason all institutions, including the Chamber of Commerce as a partner of the institutions of the country’s government. We must fight to increase our production as much as possible and to depend as little as possible on imports.
However, we are in a free market economy, and obviously we do not have the opportunity and capacity to meet the demands of our market only with our products and we must fill this missing part from imports. Our producers must increase production capacities, and for this they need the help of the state, they need the reformation of fiscal policies, they need various subsidies, and to help them find another market, not only regional but also European”, says Rafuna.

The professor at the University of Prishtina, Sejdi Rexhepi, also says that the import damages the economy of Kosova. But, according to him, the promises from the past and current governments are only on paper, and are not being realized.

“Recently, a trend has been observed in the faster growth of imports from Türkiye. In reality, we inherited an economy destroyed by the war and we started from scratch. The subsequent period was accompanied by political problems and in the second order was the aspect of economic development and in the meantime several strategies of economic development were built of Kosova, but which, apart from being on paper. Very few of them have managed to be implemented in practice.

These are the things that have finally reflected in an unfavorable position of local manufacturing businesses, which are not enough, have developed with their own forces without a clearly defined policy of support, because governments have had support for agriculture and certain sectors. But there is no clearly defined strategy of strategic, development sectors, so that local production could replace imports”, says Rexhepi.

Among other things, Rexhepi also blames local producers, since according to him, the prices of local products are not reasonable.

“Every time we import abroad, we damage our economy, because the money that should stay inside, somehow goes outside and helps the economic development there. As a result, we have to build policies that replace imports with local production…

Likewise, our producers, since the outbreak of the pandemic, have been dishonest with local consumers, they have increased prices more than was reasonable, and this has made the consumer flexible, switching from local products to foreign products that have been more cheap”, concludes Rexhepi.

The Kosova-Türkiye trade agreement for the removal of customs tariffs was signed in 2013 by the former Minister of Trade and Industry of Kosova, Mimoza Kusari-Lila, and the former Turkish Minister of Economy, Zafer Çaglayan. Türkiye had approved the agreement with Kosova as early as 2015. But, in Prishtina, it entered into force six years after signing.