Serbia/Montenegro: Customs Row Holds Up Union

Linking Serbia and Montenegro into a new federation has suddenly proved more difficult than anybody first thought. The big problem is the harmonisation of customs taxes - a task that seemed simple enough until ministers met to discuss the matter at the beginning of November.

At that point, it became obvious that raising duties to the levels imposed by Serbia would damage Montenegro's imports and leave it vulnerable to smugglers. On the other hand, Serbia's highly protected domestic industry would be under threat if the taxes were lowered from the present 12.4 per cent to anything like the Montenegrin level of 3.5 per cent.

A difference in currencies - Montenegro has embraced the euro while Serbia is still clinging to the old dinar - is also causing difficulties.

The Belgrade Agreement of March 2002 required the two nations to move towards speedy economic and political integration. The European Union wants to see a state with a unified market, currency and customs. Only when this happens can negotiations on signing a Stabilisation and Association Agreement - a precondition for EU membership - begin.

Local analysts believe that both countries would suffer if their duties were the same. If taxes were raised in Montenegro then smuggling is likely to increase - and if they were lowered in Serbia cheap imports would probably flood in.

Montenegro and Serbia have been operating separate economic systems since 1998, when the former took over control of border crossings from the federal authorities, formed its own customs service. Businessmen and ordinary people alike mostly favoured this as the lower taxes brought down the cost of imports.

After the fall of Milosevic, Brussels pressed Montenegro to give up its bid for independence, at least temporarily. Reluctantly, President Milo Djukanovic agreed to sign the Belgrade Agreement establishing a new union of Serbia and Montenegro. Ministers from the two republics joined in negotiations to establish a constitutional charter.

Problems surfaced in October, when EU experts at the Counseling Centre for Legal and Economic issues, SCEPP, proposed that Montenegro should increase duties to 5.7 per cent while Serbia should lower its to eight per cent.

Representatives from both countries rejected this, and each side wanted the other to adopt its own tax levels.

Montenegro pointed to the 7.7 per cent increase in revenues it had enjoyed since 2000 because of low taxes. Its economic experts forecast revenue would continue to increase by three or four per cent a year if duties were kept low. Montenegro's director of customs Miodrag Radusinovic has argued that the republic, unlike Serbia, does not rely on the import of industrial products and has no local industry to protect.

Mladjan Dinkic, governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia, NBJ, and one of leaders of the non- governmental organisation G17 Plus, has said that Serbia will not accept the SCEPP tax cuts. "Either Montenegro will raise customs to our level, or we should not live with them. It is not acceptable for us to destroy half of our industry to have one quasi-state," he said, adding that harmonisation would hit Serbia's textile, metal, and wool industries especially hard.

The authorities in Podgorica and Belgrade are clearly keen to maintain the status quo - so are the region's flourishing smugglers who buy cheap, low-taxed goods in Montenegro and sell them at higher prices in Serbia. It's estimated that between a third and half of total economic activity in Montenegro is conducted in this way.

Now, this issue of "cooridnating" a charter on this future state called Serbia and Montenegro has been on the agenda for quite some time. Just recently, a "major" obstacle was overcome on the issue of how will the joint parliament members be elected -- an issue that nearly railroaded the whole thing. One state wanted them elected by popular vote, the other wanted them appointed by state's parliament.

Apprently, legislators in Podgoritsa (Montenergin capital) and Belgrade (Serbian and Yugoslav capital) could not address the "other" burning issue that is now threatening to railroad the whole thing -- customs between the two states which are part of the same country(!?) This is pure insanity.

Montenegro, wich has no industry to protect -- except black market -- because nothing will grow there except poison ivy, is protecting its turf even if it means railroading Serbian economy, which is struggling to defend itself from cheap imports, and keep its head above the water. Never mind the fact that Montenegro has lived off of Serbia for the last 50 or so years, and that the only thing Montenegro ever contributed to Serbia and Yugoslavia were disastrous politicians, quasi linguists, Miloshevichs (his brother identifies as a Montenegrin), Vuk and Radovan Karadzhich, Zhel'ko Razhnatovich aka Arkan, Milovan Djilas, and similar "stars."

Since 1998, Montenegro dropped Serbian assistance and took on a path of pretend-independence, proudly, raking in money donations from international community which was all too eager to help cause a rift between Djukanovich and his old pal Miloshevich.

Now that even that income has dried up, lawlessness in Kosovo and other interest groups have found Montenegro a fertile smuggling field and a profitable "industry" of sorts that now has to be protected.

The country of 600,000 people, of whom only about 450,000 are Montenergins (the other few hundred thousand live in Serbia) claim their own language which differs from standard Serbian in 3 sounds typical of the Herzegovian dialect which can hardly be localized only in Montenegro.

It is an engima why Serbia even bothered to stay with such a parasite this long, and it is no surprize that Mladjan Dinkich is rightfully expressing frustration with even attempts to form a loose union with this blood-letting appendige.

The topping on this absurd cake comes from none other than the pro-Western apparatchik, Mr. fashionable prime minister of Serbia, Zoran Djindjich, according to Tanyug of 28. Nov. 2002.

"Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said late Wednesday European Union foreign policy and security chief Javier Solana will "practically announce" in Belgrade on Thursday that agreement has been reached on the draft constitutional charter of the future community of Serbia and Montenegro."

Note the Belgrade-speak nonse "practially announce." What is exactly is so practical about Solana's annoucnement remaind engimatic. Never mind the fact that the row over inter-state customs within the same country is not even mentioned, "practially" speaking of course.

The idea is to diminish, preferably destroy the nation that has been a thorn in every great power's toe. Serbs didn't accomplish this by being savvy but simply by bieng first class idiots capable of anything unpredictable. They pissed off the Turks and eventually kicked them out of Europe. They pissed off Austria-Hungary, which lead to WWI, which Austria lost; they resisted Germany and screwed up its USSR invasion plan which had a lot to do with its east front demise; they screwded Stalin when he least expected it; they drove Madeleine to foam at her mouth. Historically they have ruined every Empire that set its foot on their soil. Time will only tell what will happen next. But, one thing is certain, the Serbs will be waving the current occupiers goodbye one way or another, and their lackeys will be in panic. There are issues left unresolved, whether we like to admit it or not. Anyone who knows Serbs will also realize that Krayina is not tabled, that Slovenia's treason (on more than one occasion) will not be forgotten, that Kosovo will never be Albanian (for too long), and Bosnian Serbs will eventually join the rest of their kin. We can ignore it, we can pretend to believe that it is not an issue, but those who do are in denial and in contradiction of historical and cultural tendencies.

That being so, the Serbs may have been someone's worst nightmare but they were most destructive to themselves in the laatter paryt of the 19th and in most of the 20th century. They have a great potential that is neither tapped, nor regulated, because it takes an iron hand to do it. They have executed, or exiled just about every one of their rulers from 1804 on. They have shown incredble resilience and incredibles stupidity at the same time, over and over. Serbs were the only Balkan people who had their own native dynasties in place when the rest of the Balkans was ruled by german and Italian rulers. They are fiercly nationalistic, they are fiercly idnependent by nature, which is what makes them unpredictable. They have ben the first to shoot down a stealth bomber; their defensive tacticts evaded NATO bombings so much that after 78 days of carnage the Yugoslav army was in "inspection-ready condition" according to the Birtish commander of NATO troops in Kosovo as he was watching the Serbs withdraw. They are a cunning and a dangerous adversary who can be tapped or marginalized. But they won't go away.

They don't know their own language; they don't know their own history. They are amateurs and what they do is bad imitation (usually of a bad imitation). If someone ever organizes them and gives them direction and solid infrastructure, God help their adversaries.

That's why everyone is doing everything they can to erase their state, their name, their presence and turn them into Balkan Kurds.

A poster on another forum described the serbs as 'glue' of the former Yugoslavia. What do you think about it?

Why Yugoslavia was dragged to the execution block without a trial?

Yugoslavia economically was half-successful communist country. Self-management business system, invented and used in Yugoslavia, was original and had potential to become alternative economic system of the future. It never functioned properly and to its full potential because its inventors, Yugoslav communists, suppressed the laws of economy and their consequences. Yugoslavia had very successful military industry and excellent military schools. Yugoslavia helped many ex colonies of the Western World to liberate. It equipped and trained their armies. Yugoslavia was one of the founders and certanly main moderator and driving force of the Non-alliance Organization. For the country of 20 million people it become too powerful and influential in the World Affairs jungle. In order to achieve the unipolar (UN-popular) New World Order System Yugoslavia had to be destroyed.

Why The Serbs were chosen to be enemies?

The Serbs were glue of Yugoslavia. If you want to destroy a country you destroy the glue.

Voronin, I hear what you are saying, but Yugoslavia was a bad idea to begin with. Th truth is, the Croats may have started it, but the Serbs carried it to a self-destructive fetish. For its diminutive size and population, Montengro has contributed disproportionately too much to that Yugoslav perversion. It is as good a time as ever for someone elese to become Montenegro's caretaker. For sure, its adolescent-minded people are a burden more than a benefit to anyone having anything to do with them. Like true teenagers, they want too much, eat too much, behave irresponsibly, and as they please.

Let me tell you, Montenegrins are not Serbs. They are conditional Serbs, rent-a-Serbs, Serbs of convenience, primadonna Serbs. They are Serbs with a price tag attached. If you stroke them enough, they will be Serbs. Serbia doesn't need Montenegro, believe me. The entire population of that place can fit into one larger Serbian city. Serbia has been bending over backwards to accommodate Montengrin sensitivities, childish pride, illusions of grandeur, and so on. Montenegrins have been a fly in Serbia's ointment in instances and numbers that are way off the scale compared to their contributions.

It's time for Yugoslavia to die. It's time for Serbia to try to come out of its coma, to relearn its language, to rediscover its past and attach it to the present. Serbs have been so infected by the Yugoslav experiment that they no longer know who they are. They have been, and still are a comatose nation, and a nation only in name.

In time, if or when Serbia regains its health, as it did at the beginning of the 20th century, others will try to join it again, including Montenegro. Hopefully, Serbs would have learened their lessons and will ask for prenuptual agreements before enaging into any new long-term relationships trying to save losers.

Re: #8

I invite you to read #9. The thread you quote is a simplistic and naive approach. Yugoslavia existed at the expense of Serbs. Yugoslavia was never too strong. That's a myth! Both Yugoslavias fell apart like an over ripened pumpkin. The glue that kept Yugoslavia were iron hands of pre 1945 and post 1945 dictatorships. In both, Serbs gave up most of themselves as a nation by tapdancing to politically correct tunes, to appease sensitivities of loser nations, Croats and Slovenes, they decided to do business with.

Those who benefitted from Yugoslavia were not the Serbs. Slovenes came out of Yugoslavia with their own state for the first time in their 1,200 year history. Yugoslavia made it possible for them. Montenegrins were elevated to a new "nation," Bosnian Muslims became a religious-ethinic entity (something like elevating American Catholics to an "ethnic" group), Macedonians got their language -- taylor-made in communist nation-building labs in 1946, Albanians were promised Kosovo by the Yugoslav communists in a place cryptically called Bujan in 1943, only to reneg on the promise in 1945, but Kosovo's Shiptars go their autonomy, and so did the primadonna Voyvodina's "autonomists" and every friggin' non-Serb group larger than two indiviauls, wiht rights to radio, schools, alphabet, and so on.

Croatia kept its national anthem; Serbia lost hers because it made reference to God. Today Serbia still doesn't have an official national anthem. Serbs in Croatia could not get autonomy because they were "constiutent people" rather than a minority and therefore could not ask for special schools, alphabet and other cultural exemptions.

Since 1918, Serbs have been forced to use two alphabets, with Croatian Roman script being forced and favored by various groups -- from "mondialist" pro-Westerners to "internationalist" lef-wing "Yugoslavs" and communists.

Serbia was the only state whose territory has been parceled out into autonomous regions. Serb population in Croatia and Bosnia has been steadily decreasing for the last 50 years. The breakup of Yugoslavia left 1/3 of all Serbs living "abroad," in regions that were traditionally and historically their native lands for centuries. Metternich couldn't have done a better job of carving out a country with less regard to demographics.

Many Serbs were trained and expected to be Yugoslavs first. Anti-Serb propaganda made sure of that. Serbs were being described as the "oppressors" of nations, and Serb-dominated pre 1945 Yugoslavia as the "dungeon of nations". It became politically incorrect and dangerous to identify onself as a Serb, or to even ask why Cyrillic is bieng pushed out. For Yugoslavia, the only good Serbs were those who denoied themselves. Unfortunately, such Yugislavs were plentiful, some because they had no principles, others because of realities of life, jobs, you name it, but they all served the anti-Serb Yugoslav masters by being abnything but Serbs. Generations raised on lies about Serbs, lies about their own past, have grown up without memories and without identity. Being a Serb was identical to being a "chauvinist." The glue that held Yugoslavia together were Yugoslavs, predominantly Serbs who denied their nationality, mostly communists, oportunits and ordinary citizens who had to work and put food on the table to feed their families, but not Serbs.

Serbs, prepared to be sacrificed at the altar of Yugoslavia -- so all the other loser nations around them can profit, and with the help of Serb communists who put their internationalist principles above national ones -- were a vehicle to build Yugoslavia around them. Yugoslavia was the strongest when Serbs were the weakest, a policy Tito followed all along. It fell apart when the glue that held it together -- communism -- became existinct.

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