Representatives of small businesses dissatisfied with ban on second-hand goods import

The Small Business Association (AMB) urges the authorities to annul the ordinance of Customs Service, which bars entry of second-hand goods to Moldova. The association also requests reparation for the entrepreneurs’ material and moral damage. AMB Chairman Eugen Roscovanu told a press conference that vehicles carrying second-hand goods are waiting for days at the customs house or return to Europe, thus causing serious losses to both the businessmen and the state budget. Roscovanu mentions that according to the ordinance published in the Official Gazette on October 12, carriers are required to present “conformity certificates issued by relevant bodies”. At the same time, the ordinance refers incorrectly to the Government’s Decision no. 149, which actually mentions that its provisions are not applicable to refurbished and used (second-hand) goods, the cited source specified. The head of AMB opined that the situation favours a certain group which has in mind to make people buy expensive clothes and shoes. Eugen Roscovanu pointed out that in Moldova where most of the population is hit by poverty second-hand goods is a solution, adding that more than 14,000 persons are involved in the sale of these goods. At the same time, Eugen Roscovanu emphasised that this concrete action of the Customs Service is part of a range of official decisions which forbids the entrepreneur’s patent in order to monopolise the market and block the small business. A national meeting will be organised in Chisinau on November 26 which will initiate another series of protest actions, the head of AMB announced, mentioning that patent holders have already appealed to ECHR for annulling the laws which are violating their rights. The press conference was attended the chairmen of the AMB subsidiaries in Orhei, Soroca and Soldanesti, who related about the difficulties and dissatisfactions of the patent holders, most of whom are working unofficially. According to them, the Law no. 208 was voted in a hurry and is inadequate to the economic conditions of Moldova.