The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine recommends that Ukraine again use World Trade Organization (WTO) trade dispute settlement procedures to restore its export positions on the market of Moldova.
As the Chamber said in a statement, contrary to the WTO agreements, the Law of Republic of Moldova "On Fee for Pollution of Environment" introduces an additional ecological tax for the importers of products in plastic packaging and tetra-pak packaging such as beer, water, juice, oil, vinegar, etc. in the amount of UAH 0.53 up to almost UAH 2 per packaging while not applying a similar tax to the Moldavian producers.
According to the American Chamber of Commerce, only in 2012 the Ukrainian companies exporting beverages to Moldova paid additionally $3.7 million of ecological tax.
“Payments of ecological tax affect formation of prices for the imported products in a negative way resulting in gradual exclusion of the Ukrainian beverages from the Moldavian market and hampering the export potential of the Ukrainian products,” reads the statement.
According to the Chamber, the situation is complicated also by abortive bilateral negotiations that were conducted among the participants of the Intergovernmental Moldova-Ukraine Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. The decision about consideration of the issue by this Commission was made after establishment of an ad-hoc working group for settlement of the dispute between Ukraine and Moldova. Striving to reach a compromise, the Ukrainian side agreed to withdraw their claim hoping that bilateral consultations themselves would be effective.
“WTO creates all the conditions required for settlement of disputes regarding violations of fair competition requirements. Ukraine repeatedly has leveraged respective mechanisms for removing artificial barriers for export of its products abroad,” the statement quotes Jorge Zukoski, President of the American Chamber of Commerce, as saying.
In his words, for instance, the dispute related to Georgia’s setting a discriminatory excise duty for tobacco products was prevented and solved by means of informal consultations.
As was reported, large Ukrainian beverage producers in April 2013 asked the country’s leaders to boost the settlement of problematic supplies of their produce to Moldova.
According to them, Moldova’s environmental tax levied on the import of beverages in plastic and tetra-pak packaging does not let them compete with local producers and Ukrainian suppliers are forced to reduce shipments.
