FEZ residents of Moldova will continue to enjoy exemption from customs duties.
The Moldovan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) reported this, noting that by the order of the Customs Service of February 29, residents of Free Economic Z (FEZ) ones were offered a temporary solution for importing goods from FEZ to the rest of the customs territory with exemption from customs duties. These benefits will be available only to FEZ residents who applied the current legislation until January 1, 2024. At the same time, the exemption will not apply to goods of non-preferential origin (without certificates of origin EUR1 or CT1, etc.), insufficiently processed. In such cases, the customs duty will be applied only to those components of finished products that do not have preferential origin. As noted by CCI of Moldova, the need to clarify the order of application of customs duties for FEZ residents has been considered since the beginning of this year and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Moldova addressed to the competent authorities and requested to find legal solutions. The changes in the new Customs Code particularly affected FEZ residents, who, along with exporting products manufactured in the zones, are also engaged in supplying them in limited quantities to the Moldovan domestic market. Although some FEZ residents were in favor of applying the legal framework in force until 2024, they were forced to pay customs duties when importing goods from FEZ to the rest of the country. Thus, in the first 2 months of the current year, FEZ residents were unable to import goods into the territory of Moldova, given the additional financial burden and the status of domestic goods, which was not recognized. The order of the Customs Service will be published in Monitorul Oficial (the Official Journal of Moldova) and the customs information system will be updated for the submission of customs declarations with benefits. // 05.03.2024 – InfoMarket
