Aid for Trade Needs Assessment for the Republic of Moldova
Phytosanitary Quarantine and State Veterinary Inspectorate (under the Ministry of Agriculture). For testing, these bodies may engage the services of accredited state or private laboratories. The requirement that laboratory tests are to be performed on each shipment or type of goods and demands for certification may pose serious constraints on the costs and logistics for HVA exports. For product standards that are composed of SPS and non-SPS components, the Moldovan Standardization Service, on the basis of the hygiene certificate (for the SPS components) and additional testing (for the non-SPS components), is responsible for certification for conformity with the relevant product standard (conformity certificate). As for the Hygienic Certificate of the State Sanitary-Epidemiological Service, domestic producers are issued a hygiene certificate valid for up to three years, as long as their production method does not change. Exporters and importers receive a certificate valid only for the shipment concerned. In the Republic of Moldova, the National Institute for Metrology and Standardization is the agency responsible for certifying exported and imported goods. Thus, certification could be an issue for each separate shipment, a series of shipments, or an entire production process. The law on standardization regulates state control and supervision over compliance with normative documents of standardization. The Law on Technical Barriers to Trade also has provisions regarding state control and supervision in the field of technical regulations. Control and supervision is done during development, launching production, production, delivery, sales, use, depositing, and transportation of products as well as during the execution of processes and rendering services. Exported and imported goods are inspected at the customs office of the district where the exporter/importer is registered. Exporters and importers of perishable goods may conclude an agreement by which the production site is issued with a hygiene certificate valid for up to three years, and the goods are stamped with a special stamp indicating that the goods have been produced according to Moldovan SPS requirements. In all cases, the issuance of the hygiene certificate is subject to examination, either of the shipment or of the production facilities (including the products) and subject to the same sanitary requirements. Phytosanitary Certificate of the Chief State Inspectorate for the Phytosanitary Quarantine is required only for goods to be exported. Exporters must submit the following information: description of the consignment, laboratory analysis (in some cases), indication of possible disinfestation or disinfection treatment. The institutional and market structure weaknesses in the Republic of Moldova’s agricultural sector, as may be seen by the shortage of seed producers and the scarcity
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