The European Parliament on Tuesday voted to liberalize Moldova’s agricultural exports to the European Union, MEP Siegfried Muresan, who co-chairs the committee for cooperation with Moldova, said.
Under the EP resolution, export quotas will be doubled for a year for seven goods to which tariff quotas still apply. They include tomatoes, garlic, table grapes, apples, cherries, plums, and grape juice. Moldova used to export plums and grapes in large quantities to Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
The decision was made because the situation in Ukraine “has strongly affected Moldovan farmers, who are no longer able to export their goods to the East,” Muresan said.
The EU is already Moldova’s biggest trading partner, accounting for almost two-thirds of total exports, he said.
Ukraine and Turkey, within the framework of the Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement, have reached an agreement on the complete liberalization of road transportation.
“As part of the FTA, a historic agreement was reached on the complete liberalization of road transportation. Restrictions for Ukrainian road carriers in the Turkish market will soon be lifted, in particular, this also applies to the entry of empty vehicles. That is, trucks will be able to enter empty and return with goods,” Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov wrote on his Facebook page.
He stressed that the next step is to expand cooperation on combined and multimodal transportation between Ukraine and Turkey.
“We propose to create special conditions for tuning transport chains in the “road-port-road” format,” Kubrakov stressed.
According to him, the strategic goal of Ukraine is the maximum removal of restrictions for Ukrainian carriers.
Kubrakov recalled that in negotiations with the European Union, Ukraine stands for the complete liberalization of road freight traffic.
He also expressed hope that cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey in terms of road construction will be expanded thanks to new projects, including the construction of concession roads.
Kubrakov also stressed that the countries continue to work together on an agreement on cooperation in the field of maritime search and rescue in the Black Sea.
“This is an important issue for Ukraine, which arose sharply after the annexation of Crimea. An agreement with Turkey will help legally secure Ukraine’s areas belonging to it, improve the ability to conduct search and rescue operations. This will eliminate insinuations from the aggressor country about Ukraine’s failure to fulfill its international obligations,” the minister said.
He also noted the prospects for cooperation between Turkish partners and the largest Ukrainian state stevedore – Pivdenny seaport, since among all Ukrainian ports it will potentially be able to receive the largest ships that will enter the Black Sea thanks to the built Istanbul Canal.
Among the proposals voiced by the parties to the discussion of the FTA agreement is the expansion of the geography of air travel between the countries, including on the Istanbul-Uzhgorod route.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that visa liberalization for tourists from China and India should be carried out as soon as possible.
According to the presidential press service, the head of the state said this at a meeting with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine members on Monday, July 13, at which Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the government is actively working on the issue of liberalizing the visa regime for tourists from these countries.
