Chisinau concerned about Russia's plans to impose import duties on Moldovan goods
CHISINAU. Aug 5 (Interfax) - Participants in a Moldovan government meeting led by Prime Minister Iurie Leanca have come to the conclusion that the Russian government's decision to impose customs duties on Moldovan goods is unfounded and goes against agreements between the two countries and the CIS member-states, the Moldovan government press service has reported.
Officials from the Moldovan Foreign Ministry, Economy Ministry, the Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry, the Customs Service, and the National Food Safety Agency presented reports on analysis of Moscow's decision, stressing that "Moldova is complying with all of its obligations, both on the bilateral level and within the CIS framework," it said.
Leanca called on the ministries and other agencies to intensify dialogue with Russian partners, including at the level of international trade and economic organizations, to find a solution to the problem.
The Russian government earlier issued a directive on imposing import customs duties on Moldovan goods to take effect on September 1, 2014. The duties will be consistent with the Belarusian-Kazakh-Russian Customs Union's unified customs tariff. The duties will be applied to 19 categories of Moldovan goods, including meat, vegetables, fruit, grain, flour, sugar, sunflower, beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages, ethyl alcohol, and furniture.
The Russian consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor had imposed a ban on imports of Moldovan wine products in September 2013, and the Russian agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor recently suspended imports of Moldovan meat products and fruit, citing the presence of hazardous microorganisms in them.
Moscow had warned Chisinau earlier of its intention to impose restrictive measures in bilateral trade in view of Moldova's plans to sign an association agreement with the EU.
Meanwhile, agricultural producers in northern regions of Moldova have announced their plans to start a protest march on Chisinau on August 6.
Veaceslav Valco, a spokesman for the Popular Committee of Agricultural Producers of Northern Moldova, told Interfax that the protest actions in the Edinet and Otaci districts on Tuesday, in which several motorways were blocked, were only the beginning, and the people are determined to seek justice in Chisinau.
"This is not a political action, whatever some might be saying. The people are seeking to have their problems resolved, they want the government to hear them rather than ignore them, as it's been the case of late," Valco said.
"The government must take extraordinary measures in the critical situation in which the farmers have found themselves," Valco said. "The farmers have three demands. First, the government must pass legislation on a force majeure situation because of Russia's ban on imports of Moldovan vegetables and fruit. Second, the adoption of legislation on government procurements, under which the National Bank should allocate about $200 million to producers of canned vegetables and fruit to purchase produce from farmers. Third, the establishment of a trilateral commission including representatives of Moldova, Russia, and the European Union to reach an agreement on conditions of trade in fruit and vegetable products that would satisfy all parties," he said.
The agricultural producers taking part in the protest will start a march on Chisinau on Wednesday morning, Valco said. "The protesters will enter each district on their way to the capital to gather more supporters. The authorities should understand that the people have no place to take their products. I can't rule out that the trailers filled with fruit whose imports Russia has banned may one day appear in central Chisinau along with a column of thousands of protesters," Valco said.
