The reintroduction of customs duties on the export of particular Moldovan products to Russia after the agreed period of six months will depend on the outcome of the 2019 parliamentary elections, President Igor Dodon stated in a news conference held to sum up the results of his visit to Russia, where it was decided to remove the customs duties for five categories of goods as of January 1, 2019, IPN reports.
According to President Dodon, the bilateral relations with the Russian Federation and all Moldova’s successes on this dimension are due to his personal relations with the President of Russia Vladimir Putin because such a dialog between Moldova and Russia does not exist at present. Owing to these relations, 200,000 tonnes of apples were exported to Russia last year. Moldova’s apple exports to other countries totaled 1,500 or 2,000 tonnes.
Igor Dodon said the Russian side wants to have good relations with Moldova, but wants to also discuss with the Government. “It there is cooperation between the two governments after the upcoming parliamentary elections, the market will remain open. If there is no cooperation, I don’t know. I will ask this to be open, but I cannot guarantee anything,” he stated.
As the customs duties will be abolished by a political, benevolence gesture of President Vladimir Putin, Igor Dodon was asked if we should understand that the same taxes were instituted by a similar gesture many years ago. President Dodon answered that in 2014 he warned the Government about the possible risks. “We warned the then Government not to hurry to sign the Free Trade Agreement with the EU as other commercial partners could impose restrictions given the risk of re-export from the Republic of Moldova to the Russian Federation. The then government ignored the warning and these taxes were thus introduced,” he stated.
As of January 1, 2019, the customs duties on the export of five categories of goods to Russia, namely vegetables; apples, pears and quinces; apricots, cherries and sour cherries; cans and wine products, will be eliminated for six months.
