Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said on Wednesday the tariffs on goods from Serbia and Bosnia were not intended against their people but aimed to make both Belgrade and Sarajevo recognise Pristina’s independence declared in 2008, the Beta news agency reported.

He said Bosnia and Herzegovina was a country which deserved respect and partnership with Kosovo and “we want to make it easier for Bosnia to decide to recognise Kosovo since we don’t have any open issues and we don’t want to hurt it with this decision.”

In November, Pristina had introduced 10 percent import tariffs for goods from Serbia and Bosnia, in response to what Kosovo government said was Serbia’s “destructive behaviour”. Later that month, the tarrifs were raised from 10 to 100 percent.

“We want Serbia to recognise us after our measure (to increase import tariffs to 100 percent), since it needs our market, and we need recognition,” Haradinaj said.

Earlier, Haradinaj had said the import tariffs would remain in place until Belgrade recognised Kosovo’s independence and that they did want to upset the relations among peoples.

The European Union and the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) have repeatedly asked Pristina to revoke the decision on tariffs, but Haradinaj has so far refused to make a move.

The EU agreed with Belgrade that the tariffs violated CEFTA deals, and the bloc warned the decision was also contrary to the spirit of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Kosovo and the EU, but did not make any concrete step.

Belgrade refrained from any countermeasures, but lost an estimated €25.7 million in export since early November. If the measures remain in place, the loss is estimated at about €65.5 million by the end of the year.

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