Fourth round of negotiations on Moldova-EU Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement held in Brussels

The fourth round of negotiations on Moldova-EU Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) was held in Brussels on 20-23 November 2012. The agreement's chief-negotiators were Deputy Economics Minister Octavian Calmic and the head of the European Commission's Trade Department, Luc Devigne.

According to the Economics Ministry's information and press relations service, the sides approached the tariff offers on the goods' access to the market, exchanged bids on the access to the services market and continued the talks on the chapters of the agreement on the intellectual property, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers.

In the context, in terms of the goods' and services' access to the market, it agreed that the sides will revise the tariff offers, given those negotiated, and will continue negotiating them at the next round, due in Chisinau on 21-25 January 2013.

The biggest debates were focused on the possible liberalization of the industrial sector, especially, in terms of textile. The EU side expressed a great interest in the sector, and insisted on a mutual liberalization. As regards the agricultural sector, they tackled the quotas for meat, eggs, sugar, vegetables and fruits, cereals, wine and cigarettes.

The sides exchanged bids on liberalization of certain sectors of services. Their initial offers on liberalization of services are based on the commitments assumed by Moldova and the EU within the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The delegations discussed the opportunity to sign a new agreement having a higher level of liberalization than the current one, as well as having new commitments in the sectors the sides are interested in.

The European Commission welcomed the progress recorded by Moldova in carrying out the action plan on implementation of the EU recommendations for negotiating the creation of a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, included in the progress report.

Adapted from Moldpres