Slusari: Trade Deficit in Our Country Hits Anti-Record in 30 Years

Former vice-chairman of the parliament, Alexandru Slusari, claims that the Republic of Moldova has reached an anti-record trade deficit in 30 years of its independence. The ex-MP wrote about this on his Facebook page, stiri.md reports. “I want to understand if Moldova needs domestic producers. For 7 months of 2021, exports in our country increased by 15.5% compared to the same period last year. However, imports increased by 32.5 percent to about $ 4 billion. We have the worst trade deficit in 30 years of independence in the amount of 2.255 billion dollars (imports exceeding exports), and I am afraid that by the end of the year we will reach a deficit of 3 billion. Against this background, domestic agro-industrial producers have great difficulty in gaining access to supermarkets controlled from abroad and ask domestic entrepreneurs for bonuses in the amount of 25-40%. The law, which provides for the mandatory placement on shelves of at least 50% of domestic agri-food products, still has no clear implementation mechanism approved by the Government. Many local producers in the agri-food industry are humiliated by retailers. I talk to them every day and ask why they do not raise this issue of economic security. They reply that they do not see the point in this, because they feel that the current economic policy of the state is more supportive of importers, and the president has not passed a law to limit the interests of supermarkets, even if the law transposes the EU directive of April 17, 2019. I do not agree that this should be hushed up, but this is the reality,” Slusari wrote. In this regard, the politician called on the government to protect local businesses. “A liberal formula with a fully open economy threatens tens of thousands of jobs and encourages population migration,” Slusari concluded.