The exporters of walnuts should not present certificates confirming the origin of goods issued by municipalities to the Customs Service, but only the affidavit and the amended act of acquisition. This was the main conclusion reached on the round table hosted by the European Business Association, on Friday, June 14th 2013. The goal of the meeting was to present the study on "The acquisitions of fresh fruit and vegetables from individual producers for the purpose of exporting onto the EU markets".
The participants at the round table represented Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Finance, Main State Tax Service, Customs Service, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, representatives of the US Embassy, EU Delegation to Chisinau, and walnut exporters.
The participants discussed the problems which many exporters of fruits and vegetables encountered during the harvest time in 2012. The issues they were having were related to the taxation of sellers and the control of the goods' origin. In order to make farmers benefit from a preferential, transparent and predictable export regulatory framework during the harvest season in 2013, the European Business Association jointly with Business Intelligent Service (BIS) developed a study which states out recommendations on dealing with the export barriers. The study is entitled „ The acquisitions of fresh fruit and vegetables from individual producers for the purpose of exporting onto the EU markets"
The study revealed that the constraints on the export process of fresh fruit and vegetables and precisely the submission to the Customs Service of the certificate confirming the origin of the goods. This certificate is assumed that it should be issued by the municipalities, which they cannot do, as there is no legal ground which rules that local authorities should issue this type of certificate.
According to the resolutions of the round table, the Ministry of Finance will have to amend the acquisition act adding the necessary information to be presented to the Customs Service that will remove from the list the necessary acts the documents that prove the origin of the goods issued by the municipalities. The representatives of the Customs Service accepted the editing of the customs declarations, under the condition that the acquisition act shall be endorsed with an act stating the own responsibility of the exporter on the origin of goods. Explanation for this additional act, given by the representatives of the Customs Service of the RM was that: „At the moment most of the export walnut production is bought from individual producers, while the EU requirements regarding the quality of products is growing increasingly tougher." Tudor Dabija, deputy head of the revenue and customs control department within the Customs Service, added: „If the certificate confirming the origin of goods is issued with infringements, the RM risks to lose the privileges granted by the EU. A similar case took place in 2005-2006 when the export of apples was ceased on the CIS market."
The EBA group of experts will develop and submit suggestions on amending the legislative acts that regulate the export procedure in order to improve it and to avoid the situations from the previous year.
The study „The acquisition from individual producers of fresh fruit and vegetables for export on the EU markets" as well as the public event were made posible with the financial support offered by USAID project „Trade, Investment and Business Regulation BRITE".