Customs Service issues 900 certificates for export to EU

As of March 1, since the Autonomous Trade Preferences (ATP) – provided by the EU to Moldova -- were enacted, the Customs Service (CS) has issued 875 Euro 1 certificates to export goods to the EU countries, Info-Prim Neo reports. 26 certificates have been issued for wines and 14 for sugar, as these tariff positions had not previously benefited of the preferences in the export to the EU. The CS is the only Moldovan authority entitled to issue certificates on the origin of the goods. The issuance procedures are regulated through a CV order of 18 February published on 26 February in Monitorul Oficial (Moldova’s official gazette.) According to Veaceslav Balacci, a direction head in the CS, the CS intensely cooperates in certifying the origin of goods within the ATP with the European bodies, including the Tax Directorate General, the Brussels-based Customs Union and the EU Border Assistance Mission. Veaceslav Balacci says certifying the origin of goods within the ATP is going on normally, without big problems. “The European Authorities themselves appreciate that the implementation of the new regime is going successfully,” he said. Balacci specifies that the companies from the Transnistrian area are also issued Euro 1 certificates, provided they are registered, on a permanent or temporary basis, at the Moldovan State Registration Chamber. Many certificates have been issued for Tirotex and the alcoholic-beverage producer Kvint, two large companies well known in the area. The ATP that the EU grants to Moldova cover 10,200 tariff positions of goods. They can be exported on the EU market without paying customs taxes, except for 22 tariff positions that the EU decided to levy taxes, excluding the ad valorem component to it. The Generalized System of Preferences Plus, Moldova benefited of from 1 January 2007 to 1 March 2008, could be applied on 7,000 tariff positions of goods which were exported to the UE at a zero customs tax or at low taxes.