Moldova and Ukraine have started negotiations on amendments to the Free Trade Agreement in order to revise the rules of origin of goods and expand the mutual trade.
In particular, the first round of relevant negotiations took place in Kiev, where the parties held consultations on the application of PanEuroMed's rules of origin in bilateral trade between Moldova and Ukraine. The meeting was chaired by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure of Moldova Iuliana Dragalin and the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine Taras Kachka. According to the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure of Moldova, during the negotiations the parties discussed the draft amendments to the Intergovernmental Agreement on Free Trade between Moldova and Ukraine proposed by the Ukrainian side. The debate focused on the application of the provisions of the Pan-Euro-Med regional convention (PEM - Convention on the Pan-European Mediterranean Preferential Rules of Origin in Trade with the European Union) to support the business environment in both countries and facilitate preferential trade. At the same time, the provisions concerning the settlement of commercial disputes in the event of discrepancies in the interpretation of the provisions of the protocol and the Pan-Euro-Med convention were fundamentally agreed. Iuliana Dragalin reaffirmed the importance of removing non-tariff barriers to trade with Ukraine and resuming dialogue on the platform of the High-Level Working Group on Trade and Economic Issues. At the same time, it was agreed on measures to be taken by the parties to advance on topics of common interest. The parties agreed that the next meeting of the working group should take place in the first ten days of March in Chisinau. As InfoMarket reported earlier, Moldova and Ukraine intend to sign amendments to the Free Trade Agreement to revise the rules of origin of goods and expand trade. It is planned that Moldova and Ukraine will revise the rules of origin of goods applied in the framework of bilateral trade, which will allow investors and the business environment to make the most of the existing trade regime with the European Union, using the mechanism of diagonal cumulation with Ukraine. In practice, domestic producers will be able to import raw materials and components from Ukraine, then process them in Moldova and export finished products to the European Union, accompanied by certificates of Moldovan origin, without paying customs duties in accordance with the existing preferential regime. // 29.01.2021 - InfoMarket.
