National legislation on plant protection adjusted to European one

The Government approved a bill on the protection of plants and phitosanitary quarantine. According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov, the bill is designed to adjust the national legislation in the field to the European one, Info-Prim Neo reports. The bill is aimed at preventing the importation of quarantine organisms, avoiding the loss of harvest and obtaining ecological agricultural products. It regulates the phitosanitary control at the production place and the control over the quality of the phitosanitary products, registration of the producers, importers, storehouses and centers for shipping plants and vegetal products Under the bill, the phitosanitary passport (official label) must accompany the plants and vegetal products inside the country. It will be issued by the local phitosanitary supervision divisions if the sanitary examination shows that the plans, vegetal products and related goods do not contain quarantine organisms. The bill introduces a system of taxes/tariffs for phitosanitary inspection, pesticide control and control of residues in plants and vegetal products. It also provides for the adjustment of the practices of the specialized laboratories and of the specialist training methods to the EU standards. Prime Minister Vlad Filat said that adoption of the bill is very important in the context of the talks over the free trade agreement between Moldova and the EU and for increasing the export of agrifood products to the EU and other markets. He instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and other government departments to submit the bill to the Parliament for adoption as soon as possible.