Ministry of Economy: EU Consolidates Its Position as Moldova’s Main Trade Partner

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The European Union is entrenching as Moldova’s main trade partner, accounting for 64.2% of total Moldovan exports in January-April. This was stated on Tuesday at a briefing by the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure Iuliana Dragalin, infotag.md reports. She noted that “due to the pandemic crisis caused by the COVID-19coronavirus infection, there is already a reduction in external demand”. According to the data presented, 64.19% of Moldovan exports accounted for EU markets in January-April 2018, and 61.7% for the same period in 2019, however, in monetary terms, exports to the EU grew from $ 563.3 million to $ 585.2 million. Also, over the reporting period, the share of exports to other countries (except the CIS) increased from 19.5% in 2018 to 23.6% in 2019. The share of CIS countries in the period under review remained practically unchanged: 16.27% or $ 142.7 million in 2018, 14.65% or $ 138.9 million in 2019 and 15.64% or $ 128.97 million in 2020. The situation with imports is somewhat different. Thus, its share from the EU, if we take into account only January-April, is reduced every year from 49% in 2018 to 47.7% in 2019 and to 47.1% in 2020. “The list of the main partners in the EU continues to be headed, as in the previous year, by Romania (24.6% of exports and 12.4% of imports), Germany (8.8% and 8.45%), Italy (8.65% and 6%) and Poland (4.26% and 3.88%),” the Secretary of State said. She also said that Moldovan industry’s export to the EU market exceeds sales of agri-food products in 79% - 21% ratio and the main industrial goods are products from the engineering sector (27.4%) and manufactory (20.8%).