Momirovic: Pristina clearly has support for blocking goods from central Serbia, and that is dangerous

Minister of Domestic and Foreign Trade, Tomislav Momirovic, stated that for two years, the Kosovo Government had been blocking the CEFTA agreement and that it was evident that they had support for blocking Serbian goods in Kosovo, as reported by RTS.

"Let's not forget that Kosovo is a protectorate. The supreme authority in Kosovo is not the government in Pristina, but KFOR," Momirovic said on the RTS evening news.

According to him, no one talks about this trade blockade anymore because we are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe – trade is blocked, the delivery of basic necessities is blocked.

"It's hard to discuss trade effects and damage to the economy when there's obvious pressure for people to leave. This isn't the first pressure. For six months now, we've had a strong and aggressive policy toward our people with an obvious single goal – to expel the population from the territory of Kosovo and Metohija," Momirovic said.

He is convinced that Serbia will win and regain the initiative, that Serbs will regain control in the four northern municipalities in the north, and that they will ensure complete supplies for all Serbs in Kosovo.

Immeasurable consequences

He emphasized that the consequences of the current situation were immeasurable.

"Many companies, especially from the south of our country, which have cooperated with their Albanian partners for decades, can no longer do so. Even during the war, Serbs and Albanians did business; they traded," Momirovic noted.

As he says, for the first time in history, it has been interrupted, which is very dangerous.

"Free movement of people and goods must be allowed. Our people must have basic necessities available in every store. We will not stop until we secure this. We will remove these barriers with the support of our friends. People are without salaries. There's no money. There are no basic necessities. They have blocked everything," Momirovic emphasized.

"The traffic in these products has significantly increased. For some products, it's risen by 1,000 percent, for others, by 40 percent, but much more than expected. For bologna, it has jumped 1,000 percent, as well as yogurt. For apple juice it has risen by over 800 percent," Momirovic said.

As he noted, the drop in prices means a lot to people. 

"In addition to this action, we've created a spiral, and other prices have started to fall. This is a fact on the shelves," the minister said.

He announced that they were considering putting new products on sale, mainly items essential for preparing Slava (family patron saint celebration).