WT/REG352/M/1  
 
3 July 2015  
(15-3450)  Page: 1/4  
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Seventy-seventh Session   
 
 DEEP AND COMPREHENSIVE FREE TRADE AREA CONCLUDED AS A PART OF THE 
ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND  
THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA (GOODS AND SERVICES) 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 22 JUNE 2015 
(Chairman: Ambassador Francisco Pirez Gordillo (Uruguay)  
1.1.  The 77th Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter 'CRTA' or the 
'Committee') was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/RTA/2/Rev.1 dated 8 June 2015. 
1.2.  Under Agenda Item B.II of the session, the CRTA considered the Deep and Comprehensive 
Free Trade Area concluded as a part of the A ssociation Agreement between the European Union 
and the Republic of Moldova, goods and se rvices, (hereinafter "the Agreement"). 
1.3.  The Chairman said that the Agreement had been applied provisionally since 1 September 
2014. It had been notified to the WTO by the Parties on 30 June 2014 and 16 September 2014 
under Article XXIV:7(a) of the GATT 1994 and the Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XXIV of GATT 1994 as an Agreement establishing a free trade area (documents 
WT/REG352/N/1 and WT/REG352/N/1/Add.1) and under GATS Article V:7(a) as an Agreement 
providing for the liberalization of trade in services within the meaning of Article V of the GATS (documents S/C/N/743 and S/C/N/743/Add.1). The te xt of the Agreement was available, together 
with its Annexes, on the parties' official webs ites. The Factual Presentation on the goods and 
services aspects (document WT/REG352/1 dated 13 April 2015) had been prepared by the 
Secretariat on its own responsibility in full consultation with the Parties, in accordance with paragraph 7(b) of the Transparency Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements (document 
WT/L/671). In addition, written questions and repl ies on this Agreement had been distributed in 
document WT/REG352/2 dated 15 June 2015. He proposed to organize the consideration of the Agreement by first asking the parties and then other Members to give any general comments and 
then turn to the specifics of the Agreement.  
1.4.  The Chairman welcomed the Deputy Minister  Octavian Calmac from the Ministry of Economy 
as representative of the Republic of Moldova who was pleased to participate in the CRTA's 
consideration of the Agreement. He thanked the WTO Secretariat for the preparation of the Factual 
Presentation, which was a comprehensive and well-structured document. He also thanked his EU 
colleagues for the excellent collaboration throughout the process and the interested Members who had submitted questions and had shown interest in the Agreement.  
1.5.  Based on common historical, cultural and ec onomic ties between the Republic of Moldova and 
the EU Member States, the Agreement had been or iginally envisaged within the context of the 
EU-Moldova European Neighborhood Policy Action Plan in 2005. Later, in 2009 the Republic of 
Moldova had become part of the Eastern Partnershi p initiative, which had been created to ensure 
gradual economic integration and deeper political association between the EU and its Eastern European partners. 
1.6.  The Association Agreement including the Ag reement had been signed on the margins of the 
EU summit in June 2014. It had been promptly rati fied by the Republic of Moldova on 2 July 2014 
and provisionally applied since 1 September 2014. It was an ambitious, comprehensive and meaningful trade agreement aimed at reducing and eliminating tariffs applied by the parties, 
liberalizing access to services markets, and also aligning Moldovan legislation to  the European WT/REG352/M/1 
 
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  acquis communautaire . It would ensure a higher level of bilateral relations between the Republic of 
Moldova and the EU. The Republic of Moldova had benefited increasingly from favorable trade regimes with the EU, namely the GSP, GSP+, autonomous trade preferences and finally the Agreement. All these regimes had been notified to  the WTO Secretariat on time. The EU Regulation 
on Autonomous Trade Preferences for the Republic of Moldova would continue to be in place and 
would co-exist with the Agreement until the end of 2015.  
1.7.  The Agreement was in full conformity with  the WTO rules and principles. In the spirit of 
transparency, it had been notified to the WTO on 30 June 2014. The Agreement eliminated all 
duties and other restrictive regulations of commerce on substantially all trade between the Parties. Furthermore, it did not introduce any more restrictive trade regulations in relation to third parties. 
1.8.  With reference to tariff liberalization by th e Republic of Moldova on imports, EU exporters 
enjoyed an absolute margin of preference of 4.4%  as compared to the prevailing MFN tariff. The 
share of duty free lines for imports from the EU was 93.7% (96.5% for non-agricultural products and 82.7% for agricultural products). Ten years of a non-linear transitional period would ensure to 
EU exporters zero duty rates on 99% of their exports to the Republic of Moldova (95.1% for 
agricultural products and 100% for non-agricultural products). As for tariff liberalization by the EU in relation to Moldovan exports, since the Agreement's application, which also corresponded to the 
EU's full implementation of its tariff elimination commitments, Moldovan exporters had enjoyed an 
absolute margin of preference of 5.1% as comp ared to the prevailing MFN tariff. The share of 
duty-free lines applicable to exports from th e Republic of Moldova was 99.7% (98.6% for 
agricultural products and 100% for non-agricultural products). 
1.9.  With regard to rules of origin, the Repub lic of Moldova had recently ratified the Pan-Euro-
Mediterranean Convention and would soon become a party to this Regional Convention. This would 
allow it to fully benefit from bilateral and regional cumulation of origin with the EU and the 
members of this Convention. One important aspe ct of the Agreement was its "deep" dimension 
since it covered a wide and complex range of topics which went beyond the disciplines of WTO agreements on sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical regulations and standards, trade in 
services, public procurement and trade facilitation.  
1.10.  The EU was the largest trading partner of the Republic of Moldova with a share above 55% 
in 2014 and 67% in 2015. Although it was too early to speak about the immediate effects of the Agreement on the Moldovan economy since the ba sic impacts were expected to come in the 
medium and long-term, current data showed that the Agreement had contributed to the 
intensification of economic relations between the Parties. Preliminary assessments indicated that after the application of the Agreement, bilate ral trade had increased by 9%. It had also 
contributed to increased foreign direct investment from the EU to the Republic of Moldova, as well 
as to the intensification of bilateral relations at the governmental and business community levels.  
1.11.  In concluding, he hoped that the discussion  would help to enhance Members' understanding 
of the terms of the Agreement and looked forward to any further questions that they might have.  
1.12.  The European Union welcomed the CRTA's consideration of the Agreement with the Republic 
of Moldova, thanked the Moldovan delegation for their cooperation in this exercise and extended a 
special welcome to Deputy Minister Calmac who was heading the delegation. He also thanked the 
Secretariat for the preparation of the Factual Pr esentation, along with Canada, Thailand, Mexico 
and Malaysia for their questions and the interest they had shown in the consideration of the Agreement.  
1.13.  The Republic of Moldova was part of the Eastern Partnership created in 2009 with a view to 
establishing the necessary conditions to accelerate political association and further economic integration between the European Union and interested Eastern Partner countries. The Agreement 
had set up a free-trade area between the EU and the Republic of Moldova, in line with the 
principles of the WTO. An important part of th e Agreement was to align Moldovan trade-related 
laws with selected EU legislative acts. Adoption by the Republic of Moldov a of the EU approaches 
to policy-making would improve governance, st rengthen the rule of law and provide more 
economic opportunities by opening further the EU market to Moldovan goods and services.  WT/REG352/M/1 
 
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  1.14.  The Agreement removed import duties for most goods traded between the parties. It 
covered substantially all trade. Since the start of the Agreement's application in September 2014, 99.7% of the EU's tariffs had been duty free for imports from the Republic of Moldova, corresponding to 99.8% of imports by value and 93.7% of the Republic of Moldova's tariffs had 
been duty free, corresponding to 93% of the Re public of Moldova's total imports from the EU 
(during 2011-2013).  
1.15.  The rules of origin in the Agreement were  identical to those of the Pan-Euro-Med (PEM) 
Convention, which established a zone of cumulati on of manufacturing processes between the EU 
and other Euro-Mediterranean countries and whose ratification had just been announced by the Moldovan delegation. A specific policy dimension related to the "deep" component of the FTA and covered the provisions on food safety/sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical regulations 
and standards for industrial goods, public procurement, services, and customs and trade 
facilitation. Several provisions aimed at reforming the Republic of Moldova's trade and trade-related policies in those areas, in line with  and on the basis of, the EU acquis. These would 
provide for modernization of the economy, anchoring of EU investment in the country, and a better 
and more predictable policy environment.  
1.16.  The Agreement provided for economic integr ation and liberalization of trade in services as 
per Article V of the GATS. It notably included provisions on establishment, which allowed EU and 
Moldovan companies to set up a subsidiary, a branch or an office on a non-discriminatory basis, benefitting from the same treatment as domestic companies in the partner's market.  
1.17.  For customs and trade facilitation, the Agreement foresaw alignment to the EU customs 
acquis aimed at modernizing customs legislation, procedures and practices while striking a 
reasonable balance between simplification and facilitation and effective control and security. The first priority areas were the accession to the Common Transit Convention (wider common transit 
area with single data exchange) and the development and implementation of an Authorised 
Economic Operator programme.  
1.18.  The "comprehensive" component of the Agr eement covered competition policy, intellectual 
property, sustainable development and transparency . The rules on competition policy were closely 
based on relevant EU disciplines to ensure proper implementation of domestic competition laws and prevention of monopolistic practices or abus e of dominant position. The Parties reinforced 
their engagement to protect intellectual property  beyond the disciplines of the TRIPS Agreement. 
This concerned extended protection for different intellectual property rights (i.e. trade marks, 
patents, designs, and plant varieties), improved cooperation and stronger civil enforcement of IP, 
including at the border. Equally, the Agreement on Geographical Indications was entirely 
integrated into the Agreement. The chapter on  Trade and Sustainable Development included 
adherence to key international labour and environment standards and agreements, the prudent use of natural resources such as timber and fish, and the promotion of practices favouring 
sustainable development such as Corporate Social Responsibility. Civil society was closely involved 
in order to effectively implement these provisions and help to identify issues and future areas of action. Civil Society advisory groups included en vironment, labour, and business organizations.  
1.19.  It was still too early to make a conclusive assessment of the results of the Agreement on 
trade and investment flows, however, bilateral EU -Moldova trade grew in 2014 – thus covering the 
start of the Agreement's implementation - by roug hly 8%, largely due to the strong growth of EU 
imports from the Republic of Moldova. Total tr ade had amounted to €3.5 billion or €272 million 
more than in 2013. The EU had imported from  the Republic of Moldova goods valued at 
€1.16 billion, up by an impressive 20%. The valu e of agricultural imports from the Republic of 
Moldova had grown even more strongly, by 31% in  2014. EU exports to the Republic of Moldova 
had remained stable, growing by 3% or €75 million, reaching €2.35 billion in 2014. 
1.20.  The EU looked forward to a constructive  discussion and would endeavour to answer all 
Members' questions in addition to the wri tten answers which had already been provided. 
1.21.  The representative of the United States thanked the Secretariat for its work in completing 
the Factual Presentation and in particular both Parties for their participation in the review. He 
appreciated the very informative and useful pres entations which had put the Agreement into its 
proper development and economic context. The Agreement was deep and comprehensive and the WT/REG352/M/1 
 
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  U.S. commended in particular the significant tariff elimination of goods across the agricultural and 
industrial sectors and robust service sector liberalization. He had no additional questions. 
1.22.  The representative of Canada thanked the pa rties for the prompt and thorough replies to its 
written questions and did not have any further questions. 
1.23.  The representative of Thailand thanked the parties for their comprehensive presentation, 
their replies to Thailand's written questions and the Secretariat for its hard work. Thailand was still 
reviewing the response on general exceptions an d government procurement and reserved the right 
to raise any further questions in writing. 
1.24.  The Chairman said that consideration of the goods and services aspects of the Deep and 
Comprehensive Free Trade Area concluded as a part of the Association Agreement between the 
European Union and the Republic of Moldova had allowed the Committee to clarify a number of 
questions and the oral discussion of the RTA could be concluded in accordance with paragraph 11 
of the Transparency Mechanism. If any delegations wished to ask follow up questions they were invited to forward submissions in writing to the Secretariat by 29 June 2015 and Parties were 
asked to submit replies in writing by no later than 13 July 2015. In accordance with paragraph 13 
of the Transparency Mechanism all written submissi ons, as well as minutes of this meeting would 
be circulated promptly, in all WTO official languages, and would be made available on the WTO 
website. 
1.25.  The Committee took note of the comments made. 
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