Moldova’s Autonomous Commercial Preferences discussed in Brussels

The issue regarding the granting of Autonomous Commercial Preferences to Moldova is brought up for discussion by officials of the European Commission, as part of a meeting of the Minister of Economy and Commerce (MEC), Igor Dodon, who is on a work visit in Brussels. According to a press release from MEC, quoted by Info-Prim Neo, Dodon met with the deputy director of the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry, Françoise Le Bail, representatives of foreign policy in relations with Moldova, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, deputy director of Directorate-General for Trade, Peter Balas. The same source says that until now Moldova has implemented all the necessary procedures for obtaining Autonomous Commercial Preferences, as the transfer of competences for certifying the origin of goods to customs bodies, strengthening of customs control at the borders etc. The Autonomous Commercial Preferences will allow Moldova to extend to 10,000 the list of Moldovan goods that would benefit from exemption from customs duties while exporting to the EU states. At the moment, Moldova enjoys the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+) granted by EU on January 1, 2006, due to which 7200 groups of products have free access to the EU market.