Agreement on Customs Seals

Agreement within the framework of technical dialogue
Date of signing: September 2, 2011

Agreement status:
The agreement has been fully implemented

Parties / delegations

Borko Stefanović
head of the Belgrade negotiating team

Robert Cooper
Chairman – EU facilitator

Edita Tahiri
head of Pristina’s negotiating team

Officials

Boris Tadic
President of Serbia

Mirko Cvetkovic
Prime Minister of Serbia

Atifete Jahjaga
President of Kosovo *

Hashim Thaci
Prime Minister of Kosovo *

Background:

The aim of this agreement was to lift the mutual trade embargo and to enable free movement of goods in accordance with CEFTA Agreement. The agreement on customs stamps offers a solution acceptable to both parties and enables the goods from Kosovo to enter Serbia.

Since Kosovo declared independence in 2008, Serbia prohibited the imports marked with “The Republic of Kosovo” label, as well as transit of such goods through Serbia to third countries.

After the negotiations collapsed in July, Kosovo stroke back with introduction of its own ban (July 2011) on Serbian products and by initiating a police action to take over the control of two border crossings in the North – Jarinje and Brnjak, which had remained outside’s Priština’s reach, leading to the reaction of the Serbs in the North.

Signing the agreement, Serbia acquiesced to accept the goods marked with “The Republic of Kosovo”, while Priština renounced the inclusion of state emblems, coats of arms, flags or the use of the word “republic”. Also, the use of parallel stamps of Serbia’s Tax Administration ceased, as it had been used by the structures in North Kosovo in order to place new stamps on Kosovo’s documents.

This agreement enabled both parties to improve their trade relations and paved the way for reaching the Agreement on Establishing the Development Fund for the four North Kosovo municipalities. In order to establish customs control of the crossings in the North, Kosovo and Serbia reached the Agreement on Collection of Customs Revenues on 17 January 2013.

The essential points of the agreement

Implemented

Customs stamp with inscription “Kosovo Customs”/„Косовска царина“, shall be accepted, as confirmed to all parties to CEFTA.