Sekulic: The scanner will reduce congestion at Merdare, but having only one crossing for the flow of goods remains a problem

Sasa Sekulic, President of the Association of Serbian Businesspeople from Gracanica, told Kosovo Online that the commissioning of the scanner at the Merdare crossing, donated by the United States, is good news because the inspection time for a single truck will be reduced to about ten minutes, but that this does not mean the end of problems for goods from Serbia.

Sekulic emphasized that he expects congestion at Merdare to be reduced, but that the problem remains that the import of products from Serbia is allowed at only one crossing.

“We expect the congestion to be reduced, but since the Merdare crossing will continue to be the only one for importing goods coming from central Serbia, the question is how much it will actually decrease. The time frame for inspecting one truck will be ten minutes. The only good thing is that there will no longer be customs control at the terminal. The period for processing paperwork with freight forwarders will be shorter,” he said.

He added that scanning goods will increase the flow of products from Serbia, with expectations that the Jarinje and Bela Zemlja crossings will also be equipped with scanners.

“I think this will increase the import of goods from Serbia, although Kosovo ended last year with almost seven billion euros in goods imports, which is a record. We expect two more crossings, Jarinje and Bela Zemlja, to receive scanners and for the flow of goods to be faster, so that both entry and paperwork, as well as unloading, can be completed within the same day,” Sekulic said.