The Council of the EU today adopted a regulation temporarily liberalizing trade in the seven Moldovan agricultural products that are not already fully liberalized: tomatoes, garlic, table grapes, apples, cherries, plums and grape juice. This means that Moldova can at least double its exports of these products - for a period of one year – to the European Union without any tariffs.

Virtually all Moldovan products can already enter the EU tariff-free under the EU-Moldova Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), IPN reports, with reference to RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service.

The European Parliament on July 5 accepted the European Commission’s proposal to allow for temporary improved market access for seven products from Moldova. The Commission presented its initiative as a demonstration of EU’s solidarity designed to help Moldova deal with the loss of its main markets and transit hubs for these key agricultural products resulting from Russia’s unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine.

The potential tariff-free volumes will now be worth around €55 million, including approximately €10 million of plums and €27 million of table grapes.

Now that the regulation has been adopted by both the European Parliament and the Council, it will be signed and published in the Official Journal, before entering into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.