OREANDA-NEWS. December 10, 2012. The Ministry of Economy calls on business community to be more involved in agreeing on disputable points in DCFTA, the deep, comprehensive and free trade area agreement between Moldova and the EU. At a sitting of the advisory committee of the Ministry of Economy Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar noted that signing DCFTA to be a serious challenge for nearly half of economic agents of Moldova. “We have achieved the critical stage of the talks, when concrete offers on various groups of goods and services are being exchanged.

Not we have to exert every effort to raise competitiveness of Moldovan production, because our market has to be liberalized within the first year as the agreement comes into effect. It means the strong Moldovan companies will have new opportunities, but weak ones may die”, Valeriu Lazar said. According to him, the DCFTA talks are planned to be completed by the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014, and in 2014 the agreement will be effective.

After the signing, the agreement can not be amended for a very long time. That is why the Minister of Economy suggested representatives of the business community of Moldova to start examining risks and opportunities of DCFTA in every sector of the economy and submit their proposals. Valeriu Lazar also suggested developing the strategy and the plan of actions to ensure competitiveness of some branches of the national economy and Moldovan companies on the European market.

“We have to know how to adapt to new conditions, what the government is supposed to do and what the business is, and what we have to do together. We have to ensure a platform for our market operators to take part in the talks. I do not want our economy to lose neither companies nor branches, Valeriu Lazar said. During the regular round n DCFTA to be held at the end of January, 2013 quotas on import of Moldovan livestock production, sugar, dairy and juice are to be discussed.