Moldova will sign CEFTA-2006 on Tuesday

The new unique free trade agreement in the South-Eastern Europe resulted from the modernisation of CEFTA and withdrawal of Romania and Bulgaria from the present network of bilateral agreements will be signed in Bucharest on December 19 by south-eastern European countries, including Moldova. The new CEFTA consolidates 32 bilateral free trade agreements in the Southern European Region into a single Regional Trade Agreement. The agreement consolidates and modernises the region’s “rule book” on trade and includes modern trade provisions on issues such as competition, government acquisitions and protection of intellectual property. It will provide for convergence of relevant trade-related rules, notably with regards to industrial and sanitary-phytosanitary rules. CEFTA also includes the creation of an own mechanism on solving commercial disputes or using the instruments of the WTO. The signatories of CEFTA are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia. On behalf of Moldova the document will be signed by Vitalie Vrabie, the Minister of Local Public Administration. According to the statistics, in the first 10 months of 2006, the Moldovan exports to the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe amounted to about USD 136.1 mln, and the imports USD 312 mln. The main trade partners of Moldova are Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. CEFTA was established by Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia on December 2, 1992 in Krakow, Poland. Slovenia joined CEFTA in 1996, Romania in 1997, Bulgaria in 1998, Croatia in 2002 and the Republic of Macedonia in 2006. Through CEFTA, participating countries hoped to mobilize efforts to integrate Western European institutions and through this, to join European political, economic, security and legal systems, thereby consolidating democracy and free-market economics. All the participating countries had previously signed association agreements with the EU, so in fact CEFTA serves as a preparation for full European Union membership. As a result of the association in 2004, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia left the agreement and the number of members reduced to 3: Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. The chairman of the CEFTA is changed by turns. In 2006 the chairmanship belonged to Romania and in 2007 it will be taken over by Macedonia.