Regulatory and procedural barriers to trade in the Republic of Moldava: needs assessment

A small landlocked country, the Republic of Moldova remains one of the poorest countries in South East Europe, with the economy showing continued dependence on low value-added manufacturing and agriculture along with remittances from workers abroad for income generation. The country is yet to reap the benefits of the intensive reform efforts, which have been consistently geared towards consolidating a market-based economy driven by trade and investment. This study sheds light on the factors influencing the country’s development prospects and the role of trade therein by bringing forward growth bottlenecks stemming from regulatory and procedural trade measures. Using the UNECE evaluation methodology, the study also traces the manner in which these bottlenecks combine to act as trade barriers and provides action-oriented recommendations that address immediate and long-term capacity building needs for removing the identified barriers. The recommendations were discussed during a stakeholder meeting in Chișinău, which was organized on 24 February 2017 by the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Moldova with the participation of public and private stakeholders, including economic operators from the region of Transnistria. The study integrates the outcome of the stakeholder meeting as well as the written comments, which were submitted by the Government in March 2017. The emphasis is on scaling up and substantiating the recommendations in a manner that ensures building on achievements to date, complementing the Government’s development strategies and informing technical assistance activities by United Nations agencies and development partners. The Government launched a concerted effort to address the business environment and foreign trade conditions using the evidence based analysis of the study, which creates a factual solid background for measures to be undertaken. As such, it has integrated the recommendation into the National Action Plan for implementing the country’s commitments under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade Facilitation, which was launched on 16 June 2017, and into the United Nations-Republic of Moldova Partnership Framework for the period 2018–2022. ECE considers this study as a reference framework for guiding its support of the Republic of Moldova’s trade development efforts. The ECE secretariat is working closely with the Government of Moldova to mobilise the required resources and partnerships to ensure successful implementation of the recommendations.