Moldova’s Parliament ratifies CEFTA-2006 Agreement

The Parliament ratified today the agreement on Moldova’s accession to the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA-2006), providing for a free trade zone between its member states. The Agreement has the aim to open CEFTA for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, and Serbia and to modernize its provisions in compliance with the recent trends within the framework of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. According to the new agreement, the signatories will create until 2011 a free trade zone and will cooperate with a view to spurring investments, development of harmonious foreign trade with goods and services, etc. When the Agreement will come into force, the parties will annul all quantitative restrictions on export and import, export customs duties and other taxes with equivalent effect in the mutual trade. The Agreement also includes comprehensive provisions referring to the sides’ cooperation in such fields as customs administration, governmental acquisitions, and protection of intellectual property. CEFTA was signed on December 19, 2006 in Bucharest, and replaced the network of 32 bilateral and free trade agreements between the countries of South Eastern Europe, being called on to contribute to creating a free trade zone in the region. The document came into effect on May 1, 2007. According to certain opinions, the CEFTA-membership is an “antechamber to prepare these countries for European integration”.