Economy Ministry submits package of normative documents needed to implement law on domestic trade to Government

The Ministry of Economy and Trade has formulated the normative documents needed to implement the law on domestic trade that was submitted to the Parliament for consideration and adoption, Info-Prim Neo reports. Octavian Calmyc, the head of the Economy Ministry’s commercial policy division, said that the documents regulate retail trade, wholesale trade, trade in covered and open markets, the services provided for the population (hairdresser’s, the laundry, dry-cleaner’s etc.). The regulations stipulate the requirements and norms in all the areas of trade not only in the trade in goods as provided in the present legislation. They will be examined by the Government immediately after the draft law on domestic trade is adopted. The decision regarding the activity of the public eateries was approved by the executive last year. In this connection, Octavian Calmyc reiterated the key aspects of the draft law. The activity of every commercial organization now has to be authorized. The authorizations will be issued by the second-level local governments free of charge, according to the one-stop office principle. Also, the term of issuing authorizations will be limited. If the second-level authorities do not manage to issue the authorization in due time, the economic entity has the right to continue the activity under the previously issued authorization. The local public administrations must provide the Ministry of Economy and Trade with information about the number of authorized commercial organizations and the type of trade they do so as to create an integrated database that could be used by the interested state institutions. The draft domestic trade law’s stipulations concerning the inspections carried out by the inspection bodies at commercial organizations are important. There will be two types of inspections – technical and financial. The technical inspections will be carried out by the subdivisions of the Metrology and Standardization Service and of the Scientific Practical Center of Preventive Medicine, while the financial ones by the zonal fiscal inspectorates. The draft law suggests not involving the police in such inspections. A special chapter concerns consumer protection and contains stipulations regarding the compulsoriness of indicating the prices of the products on sale, the hygienic norms for displaying certain products, the guarantees for different goods and services provided to consumers, the banning of misleading publicity. “There is no common approach to domestic trade in the European area. Every country is offered a margin of flexibility so that it could regulate this area according to the specific features, traditions, state of affairs at a certain stage. When working out this bill as well as other normative documents, we tried to take into account both the interests of the economic entities and of the consumers. The area can be developed only if the interests of these two groups are harmonized,” Octavian Calmyc said.