Two final options for NIS: What is delisting and what is licensing

Delisting and licensing - these are the two scenarios that Serbia can get in order to solve the problem of sanctions that the United States of America has introduced according to the NIS.

Dušan Bajatović told Radio Television of Serbia that he expects that by the end of the day (February 24) the last meetings regarding the fate of the Serbian Oil Industry will be completed, and that a day later it will be known what is on the agenda.

What is delisting?

The first option that Bajatović mentioned is delisting, and it actually implies that sanctions are completely removed from the agenda.

However, in order for that to happen, it is necessary for the American Congress to adopt a change in the decision and thus approve the issuance of special decisions that would lift sanctions against Russian-owned companies, such as the Serbian Oil Industry.

It is unlikely that this variant will happen. When the Republicans introduced sanctions to the NIS, during the previous administration, i.e. Joe Biden's government, they had the option not to bind the decision on sanctions to the decision in Congress, but they probably did it precisely to prevent the new government of Donald Trump from easily contradicting their decisions later.

Even if there was a vote on the lifting of sanctions, it is assumed that a part of the members of the Republican Party would still hold the opinion that sanctions should be imposed on companies that operate outside of Russia and are owned by this federation.

What is licensing?

Another option mentioned by Bajatović, which he himself believes can happen, is licensing. It actually refers to issuing the right to license your own brand, that is, to issue a partner the right to produce and sell products with your brand name.

Thus, Gazprom could issue a license to Serbia, and in practice there is a possibility of issuing royalties from the arrangement, as well as paying an advance in exchange for permission for the license holder to use a certain brand.

Bajatović mentioned that Russian companies already function similarly in some parts of Europe, where the ownership has not changed, but the companies are managed from the countries where the business is conducted.