Moldova’s exports during the last quarter of 2008 decreased and are expected to further decrease this year, say authors of the quarterly report Euromonitor 2008 presented on February 10. According to the study, the demand for and prices of metals, agricultural products and textiles have considerably decreased on the Eastern market, Info-prim Neo reports. “The world economic crisis will affect Moldova’s commercial relations with other countries. Though these risks have not turned into statistical data, there are signs that the demand for certain Moldovan goods will decrease, especially from the CIS states,” said analyst Alexandru Oprunenco, program director at Expert-Grup. The report authors do not exclude that the lower remittances coming from abroad will affect the demand on the home market, and respectively, the imports. “The Government should review its optimistic economic forecasts for 2009 and refrain from populist electoral measures,” the experts recommend. The export quotas on sugar and wine offered under the autonomous trading system have been fully used, while those on grains only partially. The export of animal products is a major problem. According to Euromonitor, Moldova does not make use of all the trade opportunities, also due to internal barriers. “Their elimination would contribute to the creation of a free trade zone between Moldova and the EU,” the study says. The authors say that progress is being made in harmonizing the national framework on sanitary and phytosanitary norms with the European standards. It is yet hard to say if the legislative successes are put into practice, given that the legislative efforts were stepped up in the second half of 2008, the experts say. As to the development of trade at yearend 2008, the analysts say that the EU strengthened its position of major export partner of Moldova, with Romania playing the major role. The quarterly analytical report Euromonitor is compiled by the Association for Participative Democracy “Adept” and the Analytical Center “Expert-Grup”. It is issued with the financial assistance of Soros-Moldova Foundation as part of the project “Moldova-EU Relations: Improving Information and Public Debate on Major Evolutions”. The report focused on 10 of the 300 actions stipulated in the EU-Moldova Plan of Action completed in February 2008.