Action plan on Free Trade Area has been updated

The Government has updated the plan of actions for the creation of the Free Trade Area with the EU. “The ambitious agenda regarding the creation of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area between Moldova and the EU agreed with our European partners imposes an even more ambitious internal agenda”, declared Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. “We did our best to highlight the areas with the highest sensibility and focus our efforts on them. We also proposed a series of new elements which would allow us to organize better, to improve our assessment of results, to pinpoint problems and boost communication in order to fit within the schedule”, said the Deputy PM. As regards sensible areas, Valeriu Lazar stressed the need to eliminate technical barriers against trade. The government wants to expedite the approval of plan to harmonize the legislation regarding standardization and infrastructure of quality. Other amendments are related to sanitary and phytosanitary aspects, the need to complete the creation of the Agency for Food Safety and to introduce new points of veterinary-sanitary and phytosanitary control at the border. The financial-banking system will see the necessary normative acts taken in order to implement BASEL II norms and to apply the Strategy for the development of non-bank crediting institutions in 2011-2014. The plan of actions has a table with performance indexes attached, which will facilitate the evaluation of results, said Valeriu Lazar. The first round of negotiations on the creation of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area will take place between March 18 and 23.