[0]

Backed-up exports on Pridnestrovie's border with Ukraine was the result when an economic blockade was introduced in March 2006

MOSCOW (Tiraspol Times) - Russia's foreign minister received Tuesday the president of Pridnestrovie, the Russian ministry said in an official statement.

Sergei Lavrov and Igor Smirnov stressed the necessity to settle customs and transportation problems that arose in March 2006, which would help create the necessary conditions to resume a the Moldo-Pridnestrovian settlement process in line with earlier reached agreements.

" - During an opinion exchange, the Russian Federation's desire to continue rendering maximum aid in restoring trust and reducing confrontation level between Chisinau and Tiraspol was noted," the ministry said.

Tensions around the unrecognized country, which is informally known under names such as Transnistria and Transdniester, flared after Ukraine introduced new customs regulations on March 3, 2006. The rules were developed at the urging of Moldova and required that all goods bound for Ukraine from Pridnestrovie carry an official Moldovan customs stamp and be accompanies with Moldovan customs clearance certificates. For Pridnestrovie, the regulations amount to an economic blockade.

Since 1997, settlement negotiations have been held under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) based on the premise that better relations between Moldova and Pridnestrovie are desirable, and that the restrictions on communications, movement of people, and trade flows must be removed. The basis of the negotiations was that year’s Primakov Memorandum, a document signed by Niels Helveg Petersen for OSCE, by Moldova and Pridnestrovie, the sides in the conflict, and by Russia and Ukraine as guarantor states overseeing the adherence of the parties to the terms of the agreement.

Original right to free foreign trade

As a key part of the OSCE-brokered 1997 agreement with Moldova, Pridnestrovie was given the right to conduct independent foreign trade. It used this right to establish its own customs organization and customs stamps which were accepted as valid both by the other parties to the agreement and, indeed, by other countries in the world not parties to the agreement. Upon its subsequent entry into the World Trade Organization, Moldova submitted to WTO the 1997 Primakov Memorandum as documentation that the issue of Pridnestrovie was resolved, trade-wise.

For nearly nine years, from May 1997 to March 2006, both the parties and the guarantor states to the agreement interpreted the formulation of the right to independent foreign trade as meaning that Pridnestrovie could determine its customs regulations independently of Moldova, processing import and export cargoes in accordance with the laws and regulations of Pridnestrovie. Subsequent Ukraine administrations consistently treated Pridnestrovie as an entity with the right to conduct independent foreign trade; accepting its customs documents and processing them in accordance to the customs regulations of Ukraine as applying to any other normal, routine import and export cargoes.

Even Moldova, on the opposite side of the conflict, consistently recognized the right of Pridnestrovie throughout the almost nine years of freely conducting independent foreign trade, the right to so-called external economic activity. In a restatement of the principle, Moldova in 2005 passed a law dealing with the “special legal status” of Pridnestrovie, and in Article 9 of the law confirmed that Pridnestrovie independently has “the right to establish and support external contacts in economic, scientific and technical, humanitarian areas.”

This law has not since been revoked or modified, which means that as far as Moldovan legislation is concerned, the “special legal status” for Pridnestrovie is also still in effect; as a result not just of the 1997 memorandum, signed by the president of Moldova, but also because of the 2005 law passed by the parliament of that country.

Pridnestrovie, which has a largely Russian-speaking population, declared independence in 1990 during the general breakup of the Soviet Union. When Moldova later declared independence, it tried to reclaim the Soviet-era borders of the Moldavian SSR, although Pridnestrovie had already declared that it had no wish to become part of the new Republic of Moldova. A bloody war followed in 1992, with Pridnestrovie successfully defending its de facto independence and holding off Moldovan troops. In a September 17 plebiscite, more than 97% of Pridnestrovie's population voted in favor of independence and closer ties with Russia. (With information from RIA Novosti)

See also:
» "Simplified ideas" and use of force against Pridnestrovie rejected at OSCE summit [1]
» Victim of blockade, PMR's largest company forced to cut output almost 40% [2]
» Losses mount as firms resist Chisinau's "registration trap" [3]

On the web:
» Antiblockade Interdepartmental Coordination Council [4]