​GOVERNMENT TRIES TO MINIMIZE LOSSES FROM RUSSIAN BAN ON MOLDOVAN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS IMPORT

The Government tries to minimize losses, provoked by the Russia’s ban on importing Moldovan agricultural products, has stated Prime Minister Iurie Leanca after meeting with agrarians on Tuesday.

According to the Premier, a special commission will be created, which will develop a set of measures on protecting rights of agricultural products’ consumers and exporters. He mentioned that 20 million lei (US$1.5 million) were proposed to be allocated for purchasing fruits for schools, kindergartens and army.

Iurie Leanca has told about the need to raise consumption of fruit and vegetables on the domestic market, rethinking methods of promoting domestic products in country’s shops, so that fruits and vegetables to be placed not on the floor, but on shelves, as it is done with imported fruits.

Answering the question whether Moldova will dispute Russia’s restriction measures in the Word Trade Organization (WTO), Iurie Leanca said that if Russian Federation introduces tariff barriers on Moldovan products, it may be possible”.

“Currently we are speaking about nontariff barriers. A working group has been created for examining legal aspects of the problem. The sustainable solutions of this problem will be determined and published till September”, said the Premier, mentioning that he is now holding active discussions with officials from several European counties about raising exports of Moldovan fruits, vegetables and canned products to the European market.

At the same time, he underlined that Moldova will continue negotiations with Russia and with other countries for promoting exports of Moldovan products. Also, he said that President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenka will visit Moldova at the end of September.

“Belarus does not reject our products. We do not want to lose the traditional sales markets, including Russia. Analyzing our relations with Russia over the past 4 years, you can see that we acted like responsible partners, we never opposed ourselves to the Moscow’s position neither in bilateral relations, nor in the regional context”, said Leanca.

He mentioned that the EU Association Agreement will enter into force beginning from September 1 – sooner than it has been planned.

“Russia’s decision is unpleasant, but not unexpected for us. We are waiting to take advantage of opportunities, offered by the agreement to start exporting plums, apples, grapes and wine to the European Union market. We should be well prepared for this, to enlarge both the list of products and the list of countries, where we could export our goods”, concluded Leanca.