Ministry of Economy and Commerce wants to regulate trade in Moldova’s marketplaces

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce wants to regularize the retail and wholesale trade in the marketplaces of Moldova, the head of Commercial policies of MEC, Ocatvian Calamac stated at the National Forum “Regulation of internal commerce via European practices” on December 6. According to him, the ministry wants to introduce new legislative and normative acts in the field of internal commerce, particularly the draft Law on the internal trade and methodological norms related to some products and market services. The legal framework in the field of domestic trade was drawn up on the grounds of European countries’ experience and with the direct involvement of European experts. In this respect, the legislation of CIS members, Baltic countries, Romania, Switzerland, France, Macedonia, Hungary and Bulgaria was consulted. The implementation of the new legal framework will ensure a proper level of consumers’ protection, commercial security of the internal market and will contribute to creating transparent rules both for central and local public bodies, as well as for the enterprises. The novelty of the law is that it introduces clear principles for the start of a commercial activity, simplifies the procedure of legalizing the commercial activity by introducing the “single desk” principle when obtaining the commerce authorization, settles general rules for the selling of products and market services in light of EU’s recommendations, settles the competence and separates the functions of the local and central public administration in managing the commercial process, limits the interference of inspection bodies in trade activity. After the implementation of the law, a distribution network for the market products and services will be created, respecting the freedom of competition, protection of life, health and interests of the consumers. It is proposed to create the National Register of merchandisers and of the National Agency for the Protection of Consumers. The creation process of the legal framework in the field of internal trade was supported and consulted by the experts of TACIS project “Assistance in implementing APC, OMC engagements and of Moldova-EU Action Plan within the European Neighbourhood Policy”, as well as by international experts from Italy, who presented the best practices in the field of internal trade regulation in the European space.