Moldova, Transnistrian working group to elaborate document on implementation of Free Trade Agreement with EU in breakaway region
18:03 | 03.04.2015 Category: Economic
Chisinau, 3 April /MOLDPRES/ - A working group set at governmental institutions’ level will elaborate a strategic document on the enforcement of the Free Trade Agreement with EU in the Transnistrian region. The first talks on this item with the Transnistrian side will be held in two weeks at a meeting in Chisinau, with the participation of experts in the sanitary, phytosanitary, veterinary, foreign trade and customs sectors, according to a press release by the Economics Ministry.
A possibility is considered to implement the Free Trade Agreement in the Transnistrian region starting from 2016. In this respect, „the working out of a cooperation mechanism in goods certification” is to be speeded up.
„If necessary, European experts will be invited at and consulted during the meeting in Chisinau, who in the end have to give their opinion on the mechanism and its compatibility with the Association Agreement/Free Trade Agreement,” the communiqué reads.
The discussions with the Transnistrian side within the working group on economic issues were resumed after a half-year break. The Moldovan economic working group is led by Deputy Economics Ministry Octavian Calmic.
The participants also approached the problems the Transnistrian economic agents faced when making import/export operations, including the one regarding products’ certification, VAT application, customs and tax management.
The sides also agreed to resume talks within the working group in banking area.
The Tiraspol media writes that the Transnistrian region presented for examination a draft on creation of a free trade area between Moldova and Transnistria.
In 2014, the exports made by the Transnistrian economic agents amounted to 715.9 million dollars, of which about 37.1 per cent of Transnistrian goods were transacted on the right bank of Dniester, 44.3 per cent to EU markets and 16.7 per cent to the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Economics Ministry notes that these figures confirm the Moldovan authorities’ intention to facilitate the Transnistrian economic agents’ access to local and foreign markets.
(Reporter V. Bercu, Editor L. Alcaza)
