Brussels, 18/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 17 December, the European Parliament voted by 551 votes to 67, with 23 abstentions, to open the EU market to duty-free quotas of apples (40,000 tonnes), grapes (10,000 tonnes) and plums (10,000 tonnes) from Moldova. This concession comes on top of trade preferences granted to Moldova as part of the deep and comprehensive free-trade area with the EU, established by the EU-Moldova association agreement, which the European Parliament ratified last month.
The opening of these quotas seeks to compensate Moldovan producers for the losses they have suffered after Russia imposed a ban on imports of Moldovan produce. The impact on the European market will be very limited given the scale of the quotas compared with European production (apples 0.4%, plums 0.7% and grapes 0.6%). Most of the Moldovan produce will go to Romania.
The duty-free import quota, which still needs to be formally approved by the EU Council of Ministers, is to apply retroactively from August 2014 and expire at the end of 2015. (EH)