Moldovan government approves amendmenhts to agreement on free trade with Ukraine

Chisinau, 21 October /MOLDPRES/ - The participants in a cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Ion Chicu, ruled to start negotiations and approve the signing of the protocol on amendment of the agreement on free trade between the governments of Moldova and Ukraine, signed on 13 November 2003, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.    

Under the protocol, the rules of goods’ origin, enforced in the bilateral commerce, are to be revised. The concerned action will facilitate the investors and business environment to fully turn to account the present commercial regime with the European Union, using the mechanism of diagonal cumulation with Ukraine as well. In practice, the native producers might import raw materials and components coming from Ukraine and subsequently, processing them in Moldova and exporting the finished good to the European Union; they are to be accompanied by certificates of Moldovan origin, without the payment of customs duty, according to the current preferential regime.   

The approval of amendments comes in the context when Ukraine has been enforcing, starting from January 2019, the provisions of the Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin (PEM Convention) in the trade with the European Union.  

Moldova became member of the PEM Convention in 2015 and, according to the Protocol II of the Moldova-EU Association Agreement, enforces its provisions in the trade with the EU member states. As a result, Moldova and Ukraine will use identically the rules of origin in the bilateral trade and the principle of diagonal cumulation.