Moldovan government approves starting talks on agreements to facilitate trade within Commonwealth of Independent States

Chisinau, 25 July /MOLDPRES/ - The government will initiate negotiations on a draft agreement on technical barriers to the trade with the member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). A draft decision on starting talks and providing powers to negotiate the accord is on the agenda of a today’s cabinet meeting.   

The government will also approve the nominal composition of the official delegation due to hold negotiations, led by the state secretary in the sector of quality infrastructure and international cooperation at the Economics and Infrastructure Ministry, Iuliana Dragalin.

The draft agreement contains 14 articles which regulate the possibility of recognizing the results of evaluation of the compliance of the goods made in CIS. The Economics and Infrastructure Ministry considers that the signing of this agreement will contribute to boosting the cooperation between the countries of the Commonwealth and will facilitate the making available of products from CIS on the market.  

After the decision on starting the negotiations is passed on the international stage, the draft will be negotiated by correspondence.

The cabinet of ministers approved a decision on the negotiation of an agreement on recognizing the results of the accreditation of the organizations of assessing the compliance of goods made in CIS.  

Data by the National Statistics Bureau (BNS) shows that Moldova’s exports to the CIS market decreased by 0.2 per cent in the first five months of 2018 against the same period of the year before, to 177.5 million dollars; the weight of the CIS countries in the overall Moldovan exports diminished from 20.8 per cent in January-May 2017 to 16.1 per cent in the first five months of this year.   

The imports of goods coming from CIS countries stood at 533 million dollars in January-May 2018, up by 17.5 per cent against the same period of the last year. At the same time, the share of the CIS countries in all Moldova’s imports dropped to 23.4 of all the imports, against 25.3 per cent in January-May 2017.  

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)