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Retrospective of a crisis. On the verge of collapse
The beginning of 2013 was marked by a deep political crisis that could have led to early parliamentary elections, while the current government would have experienced a crushing defeat in the polls. The politicians realized yet the risk and overcame the internal misunderstandings. As a result, at the end of November Moldova initialed the Association Agreement with the EU, with the European Commission recommending liberalizing the visa regime for Moldovans. The articles of the series “Retrospective of a crisis. On the verge of collapse” aim to anticipate how the events of 2013 will influence people’s options next year, which is an electoral one, and to formulate conclusions.
A different crisis
After the political crisis of the beginning of this year, there was established political stability and the state institutions started to function normally, while the political class focused on the initialing of the Association Agreement with the EU. The period of political stability has been yet marked by a new crisis, caused by the Russian ban on the imports of Moldovan wine.
The head of the Union of Oenologists of Moldova Gheorghe Arpentin was yet optimistic that the situation would not be as tragic as in 2006, when Russia also banned the imports of Moldovan wine. The Moldovan wine companies learned the lesson. After 2006 many of them penetrated new markets and established new business relations. Control over the exported wine was essentially improved. Russia imposed a ban on the imports of all the wine products of Moldova. The announcement was made by the chief of Russia’s food safety body “Rospotrebnadzor” Ghennady Onishchenko on September 10. He said that the last eight consignments of Moldovan wine products didn’t meet the sanitary norms.
Reactions
“Some of the Moldovan politicians go personally to Moscow to convince the Russian authorities to impose different bans on Moldova and to exert pressure on the country. Their goal is to damage the government’s image and to influence the results of the next elections,” said Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov.
Russia and Moldova agreed a number of actions that must be implemented. Afterward, there will be set the terms for resuming the exports of Moldovan alcoholic beverages to Russia. Such an announcement was made by “Rospotrebnadzor” on September 21, after a meeting of Vasile Bumacov and Gennady Onishchenko in Moscow.
The European Commission on September 25 proposed that the EU member states should open the market for the Moldovan wine products, before the creation of the Free Trade Area. Until now, the Moldovan producers were able to export 240,000 hectoliters of wine a year without paying taxes, within the regime of autonomous trade preferences. After Russia imposed the ban, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dacian Ciolos said the Moldovan wines need investments to be promoted. The people must discover them and it is now the most opportune moment, owing to the wave of emotional support witnessed all over Europe.
Meanwhile, the Moldovan authorities sent letters with arguments and explanations over the objections to the quality of the Moldovan wine to Russia. At the beginning of October, experts of “Rospotrebnadzor” came to Moldova to examine the national wine products. They visited wine factories and complexes.
Minister Vasile Bumacov said that during the last visit to Moscow at the start of December, the Ministry of Agriculture’s specialists held discussions with the experts who visited Moldova for over two hours. He underlined that they used up all the arguments, but the Russian side continues to put forward new objections. Russia imposes two times more conditions for importing Moldovan wine than the European Union.
EU is ready to import all the Moldovan wine
On December 10, the European Parliament agreed to liberalize the wine imports from Moldova, as the European Commission proposed in September. The decision was taken by a wide majority of 503 votes. It will take effect on January 1, 2014.
Moldova failed to sell wine products of US$20 million after Russia imposed the ban. However, the country’s wine exports rose by 23% on last year. There were harvested 600,000 tonnes of grapes and made over 160 million liters of wine. About 120 million liters were already exported.
Moldova exported to the EU wine to the value of US$27 million, while to the CIS – of US$93 million. The EU member states that imported the largest quantities of Moldovan wine are: Poland (37%), the Czech Republic (23%), and Romania (13%). Among the CIS member states, Russia imported the largest part of the Moldovan wine (48%), followed by Belarus (39%) and Kazakhstan (12%).
Viorel Chivriga: Russia hit Moldova’s strategic sector
Economic expert Viorel Chivriga commented for IPN on the situation experienced by Moldova after the imposition of the Russian ban. The wine sector is a strategic one for Moldova and is the worst hit when certain animosities appear in the relations with such states as Russia. A large part of the country’s population is involved in this sector. The wine industry was affected by the arbitrary decisions taken inside and outside the country. This ban causes losses and image-related problems. In 2006-2007, Russian tractors destroyed the Moldovan wine products that reached Russia. This image counts a lot especially when the wine companies intend to diversify the markets. The farmers who grow grapes are also affected as the demand and prices decrease.
Before the decision to impose the ban was taken, “Rospotrebnadzor” issued a number of communiqués. Until September 10, they said that they do not have objections to the Moldovan wine products as they met all he requirements. “It is strange that everything was fine until September, while in September the wines were already bad. The EU, for example, has exact norms and the Moldovan wine products are accepted on this market. I don’t think they would have been accepted if they had contained chemical substances or hadn’t obeyed the norms,” said the expert.
Ban will be maintained in 2014
A very difficult year is coming, when a lot of promises will be made and where the area for manipulations will be wide. Next year the maturity of Moldova will be tested. The pressure of 2013 will be extended to 2014. We will come to a stage at which rather large countries as Ukraine failed the test, said Viorel Chivriga.
The expert believes that the ban on imports of alcoholic products into Russia will be maintained. There will be also exerted pressure in the energy sector and on the movement of Moldovans to Russia. It won’t be strange if serious animosities appear in the country’s most painful place – the Transnistrian region. There are certain fears and probably Russia in 2014 will put pressure on the Moldovan authorities to give up signing the Association Agreement with the EU.
After 20 years of the proclamation of the country’s independence, it’s time for the politicians and the population to show dignity. There are other states that overcame Russia’s pressure and took steps forward in their development, including Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. “It’s a pity that Moldova was unable to take such steps together with the Baltic countries. Now the situation in our country would have been different. In order not to miss the chance again, the government must show maturity,” said Viorel Chivriga.
Lessons to be learned
The Moldovan politicians do not fully learn the lesson. Viorel Chivriga wonders how the Moldovan government could lose the wine factories owned in Russia’s Adler, Barnaul, Tveri, and Tula, the wine factory “Botkin”, the wine factory in Orlov, the joint company “Iantarnyi Aist” and others.
If these companies had been maintained and worked at full capacity, the situation would have been different and Moldova could have even influenced Russia’s decisions. Not much money was collected into the budget. The authorities made a stupid mistake when they yielded these companies up, said the expert.
Moldova should adopt a serious approach and should protect the sectors of the national economy. Exports must be diversified. The country does not make use of the instruments it possesses. Increased attention should be paid to the products that the Moldovan companies sell abroad. The efficiency of the companies must be improved. If Moldova has powerful enterprises, it will surely have a good offer.
Mariana Galben, IPN