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.
