Moldova, Belarus to liberalise bilateral freight transport

Chisinau, 14 August /MOLDPRES/ – The bilateral goods transport as well as transit between Moldova and Belarus will be carried out without authorisations, which will facilitate the transport and exchange of goods between states. The Government has approved today the Protocol on modification and completion of the Agreement between the executives of Moldova and Belarus on international traffic of 09 April 1994, drawn up on 15 May 2019.

According to provisions of Protocol, the irregular transports of persons and goods in bilateral, transit, as well as in/from third countries will be carried out without transport authorisations, which will develop road transport, exchange of goods and facilitate travel of persons of Moldova and Belarus.

The Moldovan transport operators are showing increased demand in Belarusian authorisations for freight. Therefore, there are requested additional quotas of authorisations yearly, negotiations are difficult, due to invocation of principle of parity when exchanging authorisations.

The initiative regarding the signing of Protocol on liberalisation of transport belongs to Moldovan party. The discussions on it were updated at the meeting of the Government Commission, which was held in Minsk, on 05 – 06 June 2017. The Government approved on 06 September 2017 to start negotiations on draft Protocol. It was held the meeting of the Moldovan – Belarusian joint commission in the field of international road transport, in Minsk, on 04 June 2018. One of the issues addressed at this meeting was the draft Protocol. The Belarusian party proposed that the transport of passengers and goods in bilateral, transit, as well as in/from third countries should be carried out without authorisations, modification accepted by the Moldovan side.

Belarus enters TOP10 of most important trading partners of Moldova. According to the National Bureau of Statistics' (BNS) information and media communication service, Moldova exported goods to Belarusian market in the amount of $87 mln in 2018 and imported goods from Belarus in the amount of $128 mln. The official statistics also show that about 87 per cent of exports of goods and 83 per cent of total imports are made by means of road transport from Moldova.