Moldovan agro-food import, export procedures to be optimized

Chisinau, 10 March /MOLDPRES/-Almost ten permissive documents for the import, export and transit of agro-food products in the sanitary-veterinary and phytosanitary sectors will be removed. The provisions are included in a draft law amending and supplementing some legislative documents, unveiled during a round-table at the Economics Ministry today.

The draft also suggests that the registration procedure with the National Food Safety Agency (ANSA) be replaced with a notification-type integrated informational system, empowering ANSA to keep track of all the operators. The draft also provides for the elimination of license needed to import and/or stock, trade phytosanitary products and/or fertilizers, as well as the license for veterinary pharmaceutical and/or veterinary assistance activity.

“The optimization of sanitary-veterinary and phytosanitary permissive documents’ issuance is part of the cooperation between the Economics Ministry and USAID BRITE to facilitate trade. Once adopted and implemented, the amendments on the issuance of permissive documents will help significantly reduce time and costs of import/export procedures,” Economics Minister Vitalie Iurcu said.

According to USAID BRITE experts, Maria Porca and Lucian Boncea, the amendments will ensure the transposition of the EU legislation, aiming to facilitate and boost up Moldova’s exterior trade, remove barriers to business development and minimize the time spend and costs of import, export and transit-related procedures.

The import procedure is currently being done in five stages. According to EU regulations and practices, import procedures shall be organised and optimized in two phases. The amendments to the legislation were carried out with the support of the U.S. government via USAID BRITE programme.

(Reporter V. Bercu, Editor M. Jantovan)