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Kosovo Hits Foreign Companies in Serbia With 100% Import Tariffs

BELGRADE (Sputnik) - Kosovo has expanded its 100 percent customs tariffs on Serbian imports to include goods made by multinational corporations.
Sputnik

"The Ministry of Trade and Industry wants all companies to be treated equally and demands an end to all waivers starting January 1, 2019," Trade Minister Endrit Shala was quoted as saying by the Gazeta Express.

The tariffs were imposed following this demand.

Taxes on Serbian imports were hiked after Pristina accused Belgrade of lobbying against having it be accepted into Interpol.

READ MORE: Pristina's Taxes Bring Humanitarian Disaster to Kosovar Serbians — Russian Envoy

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Serbia says the measure has led to losses averaging $49 million a month and shortages of medicine and other necessities in the Serbian-majority regions of its breakaway province.

In November, the government of the self-proclaimed republic of Kosovo set a customs duty of 100 percent on all products from Serbia and also banned all goods that were not marked with symbols of Kosovo, as is required by the rules of the self-proclaimed republic. However, several foreign companies producing goods on Serbia's soil were exempt from the tariffs.

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