Decision by U.S. Commercial Representation not to hit Moldovan-American economic relations

Chisinau, 12 February /MOLDPRES/ - The decision by the Commercial Representation of the USA on updating the list of poorly developed and developing countries, in the context the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, will not hit the bilateral economic relations between Moldova and the United States.

According to the Economics and Infrastructure Ministry (MEI), “the changes approved by the USA, in force as of 10 February 2020, represent an adjusting of the domestic legislation, which excludes a string of states (Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Macedonia, Ukraine), including Moldova, from the list of developing countries. This adjusting is taken into account at the enforcement of the provisions of WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures,” MEI sources said.    

The document sees a string of preferential measures for the poorly developed and developing countries, in the process of starting investigations within the WTO Agreement.

“While taking into consideration the small volume of Moldova’s exports to the U.S. market, as well as taking into account that Moldova does not use subsidies on export and any other banned subsidies, and the likelihood of our country’s inclusion in investigations, according to the previous practice, is minimal, the concerned change will not have economic impact on exporters,” the Moldovan competent ministry said.  

At the same time, the Economics and Infrastructure Ministry warns about the fact that “the aforementioned actions do not have repercussions on the preferential trade regime unilaterally provided by the USA to Moldova.”