Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić stated that Croatia’s blockade of border crossings wilfully “let the genie out of the bottle” which will cause economic damage to everyone involved.

“They virtually imposed sanctions on our country and that move cannot be logically linked with the migrant crisis,” said Ljajić in an interview for “Novosti”, adding that Serbia will therefore be forced to introduce countermeasures against Zagreb.

• What is the extent of the damage that our country suffers from trucks being stuck for days on the Croatian border?

The cross-border trade in goods with Croatia and Hungary totaled EUR 21 million a day. The direct damage is huge. Many of the trucks are carrying perishable goods and many companies will be forced to pay penalties for not delivering their goods on time, which will bring their contracts with their clients into question.

• Why did the Croatian side deliver such a low blow?

Their move is the first of its kind. They introduced economic sanctions because the refugees going through Serbia are crossing through their country to get to Western countries. Serbia could have imposed economic sanctions on its neighbors for various political disputes, but it never did.

• Zagreb is accusing us of directing the migrants to their country…

The migrants choose their route and destination country by themselves. They do not want to stay neither in Serbia nor in Croatia. Our country has behaved in the most constructive way in this matter.

• In what measure has the political campaign in Croatia contributed to the exacerbation of relations?

There is no other explanation than that it is all a result of the pre-election campaign. However, the damage caused will be much higher than the votes that someone will gain because of anti-Serb actions. They have about 200 companies operating in Serbia, while the number of our companies operating in Croatia can be counted on fingers.