Customs Office might issue origin certificates

The task to issue the origin certificates of goods could be transferred from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) to Customs Office. The deputies voted on Thursday, 23 March a decision draft in this sense, at government’ s initiative. Nicolae Iesanu, deputy minister of justice, said during parliament’s meeting that this change is needed in order to comply with the requests of the European Union, according to which the origin certificates of the goods should be issued by customs office. Igor Dodon, deputy minister of economics and commerce, mentioned that as result of transferring these attributions to Customs Office the cots of these certificates would decrease from 12 euros, now, to 6 euros. Many deputies said that the price of 6 euros is too high and creates troubles to exporters. Deputy Dumitru Braghis noted that it has become already a practice when it is desired to vote for a project it is talked about EU requirements. He said that he did not believe in the fact that EU required that the Customs Office issues these certificates, which is one of the most corrupted institutions of Moldova. Braghis proposed to postpone approval of this decision draft. The majority of deputies voted for approval of this document. The draft did not refer to goods exported to the Common Wealth of Independent States. If it voted in second reading, CCI will continue to issue the certificates for exported goods in ex-soviet countries.