OREANDA-NEWS. January 19, 2012. Technical consultations on launching RM and EU Free and Comprehensive Trade Zone negotiations have started in Chisinau. Official talks on signing the respective agreement are opening in late February, the ministry of economy informs. Participants in the preparatory meeting, representatives of EU, ministry of economy and other public institutions have discussed matters concerning the structure and the schedule of the talks, teams of negotiators and the technical assistance Moldova will be rendered during the preparation to the creation of the free and comprehensive trade zones.

According to the resolution adopted, 4 rounds of the negotiations on Free and Comprehensive Trade Zone are to be held in 2012, Octavian Calmic deputy minister of economy, head of the Moldovan team of negotiators, has noted. Additional negotiations on this topic will be held in the framework of discussion of the RM-EU Association Agreement.

During this year the main topic of the negotiations will be regulations of goods and services trade, representation of Moldovan companies in European countries, investment, customs administrations, intellectual property, competitiveness, state purchasing, institutional frames of the mediation system to handle trade disputes, etc.

In the context of preparation to the first round of the negotiations Octavian Calmic has said that Moldova is going to complete the fourth report on implementation of EU recommendations for the beginning of the negotiations on free trade zone before the first round starts.