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| Anatol Țăranu | |
On the first day of 2024, the new Customs Code and also the Law on how to introduce and export goods from the territory of the Republic of Moldova by individuals entered into force. The documents replace the regulations that had been valid until now. The Ministry of Finance in Chisinau last December reminded of the coming into force of the new Customs Code of the Republic of Moldova - a law voted in Parliament with No. 95 back on August 24, 2021. The main objective of the new customs legislation of the Republic of Moldova is to standardize and harmonize the national customs legislation with that of the European Union. The implementation of the new Customs Code is one of the main commitments undertaken by the Republic of Moldova together with the obtaining of the EU candidate status. The new customs legislation adjusted to the European Union acquis will offer economic agents more benefits, digitized services and reduced bureaucracy.
“An ‘unexpected step’ announced three years ago”
The new Customs Code entered into force with a break of almost three years of its adoption by Parliament. This is a sufficient period to adjust all subjects covered by the new legislation to the new requirements. This also refers to economic agents from the Transnistrian region, which is currently in the custody of the separatist administration in Tiraspol. The problem lies in the fact that, starting with January 1, economic agents from Transnistria are put on an equal footing with those on the right bank of the Nistru and will pay customs duties according to general principles. This means that at the legislative level, export/import exemptions for economic agents from Transnistria were abolished, but these exemptions contributed to the economic consolidation of the Transnistrian separatist regime and served as a catalyst for unfair economic competition. The separatist leader himself hinted that revenues into the Transnistrian budget will decrease substantially now that the economic agents will pay customs duties on import/export into the national budget of the Republic of Moldova.
Judging by the noisy reaction to the new Moldovan customs legislation of the separatist leader, Vadim Krasnoselsky, who was extremely outraged by the fact that, starting with January 1, economic agents from Transnistria are put on an equal footing with those from the right bank of the Nistru and will pay customs duties according to the general principles applying to all economic agents from the Republic of Moldova without exception, this approach took the separatist authorities by surprise and completely unprepared. Recently, addressing the officials in Chisinau via a video, the separatist leader demanded, not without arrogance, to reintroduce export/import exemptions for economic agents from Transnistria. “Due to the measure imposed right on the New Year, entrepreneurs from Transnistria, individuals and legal entities, found out about the new customs duties introduced by Moldova. Simply put, (the Republic of) Moldova imposed particular taxes on Transnistria. Should I say that it was a shock to us? Probably not. An unexpected step? Probably yes,” Krasnoselsky said in his address to the government in Chisinau.
Arguments from naphthalene
In this context, a natural question arises, why has the new Customs Code become “an unexpected step” for Tiraspol? They had three years to prepare for the new reality in the customs sphere. Why do they accuse Chisinau of not warning Tiraspol about the new customs rules? With such logic, we can reach the aberrant conclusion that the ministries in Chisinau must present their reports on the done work in Tiraspol. This is an older dream born in Moscow, which was to be put into practice based on the stipulations of the defunct Kozak Memorandum.
Probably understanding the stupidity of the situation they got into due to the failure of not notifying in time of the risks caused to the separatist regime by the new Customs Code, those in Tiraspol found nothing better than to remove from naphthalene the false argument according to which Chisinau is to blame for the 1992 war. Deducing from this falsehood another argument that is not less false, that the annulment of exemptions for economic agents from Transnistria, which parasitize on those from the right bank of the Nistru, would be part of the same register. Even more, Chisinau is accused of separatism for the fact that it declared the republic’s sovereignty on June 23, 1990, when the Soviet Union still existed. Krasnoselsky made these frothy statements against the background of the Russian tricolor hoisted in his office, forgetting to mention that the declaration of sovereignty of the Moldovan SSR was adopted by the Moldovan Parliament only after the Russian Federation declared its sovereignty on June 12 of the same year, provoking this way the process of dissolution of the USSR.
The war changed facts of problem
The new Customs Code entered into force in Moldova on January 1 and, eliminating all exemptions from customs duties enjoyed for decades by economic agents from the separatist Transnistrian region, creates equal conditions of treatment for all companies from both banks of the Nistru, given that more than half of the goods produced in the Transnistrian region are sold on the right bank. This share has been steadily increasing in recent years, according to Tiraspol data, and almost a third of them reach the countries of the European Union, given that companies from the separatist region also enjoy the free trade regime with the European Union granted to the Republic of Moldova.
The separatist authorities in Tiraspol are desperately resorting to international mediation in the defunct 5+2 format in the hope of preserving the unfair customs privileges wrested in the past from Chisinau that was marginalized by Moscow’s influence on the Transnistrian conflict. But Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine has radically changed the facts of the region’s geopolitics. Moscow’s influence on Moldova has decreased dramatically and this creates previously unsuspected preconditions for the political settlement of the Transnistrian conflict.
Integrationist test of Customs Code
In this situation, it is expected that Tiraspol will resort to its formerly preferred tactic - to blackmail Chisinau by inventing various impediments to the functioning of Latin-script schools in the region, restricting access to farmland located northeast of the Tiraspol-Camenca road, etc. Chisinau’s reaction to this blackmail must be prompt: from restricting the trips of officials of the separatist regime through the territory of the Republic of Moldova to implementing economic sanctions on exports from Transnistria, first of all, of the Sheriff holding. Today, when the border with Ukraine is closed, Tiraspol cannot resist an economic war with Chisinau, unless the bluff of separatist blackmail is taken seriously.
The full and undeviated implementation of the provisions of the new Customs Code becomes an important element of the policies on the political settlement of the Transnistrian conflict with the respecting of the fundamental interests of the Republic of Moldova. In this snot at all simple situation, a special role is played by the government institution led by Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Serebrean, which must assign to itself the role of supervisor of the process of unconditional implementation of the provisions of the new Customs Code in relation to the Transnistrian region, including to familiarize our foreign partners with the importance of this process for the political settlement of the secessionist conflict. The implementation of the provisions of the new Customs Code will certainly not take place without challenges from the separatist regime and its patrons in Moscow, including the fifth column inside Moldovan society, but it will also become a test for the government on political consistency and the capacity to use the opportunities arising from the change in the region’s geopolitics due to the war in Ukraine to restore the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova.
IPN publishes in the Op-Ed rubric opinion pieces submitted by authors not affiliated with our editorial board. The opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily coincide with the opinions of our editorial board.