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Team of one national and one international consultant to develop a National Study on the internal barriers to foreign trade in agrifood sector and their implications for poverty reduction and human developmentVacancy Number: Pr13/00268
Background
The economy of Moldova is small and open. It has one of the most liberal trade regimes and one the highest shares of the foreign trade in GDP in the region. The burgeoning foreign trade also helped country to weather well the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008-09. Indeed, the post-crisis recovery was propelled by rebound in remittances, rebuilding of capital stocks and by boom in exports. However, in 2012 the economy has appeared to be out of steam. After GDP posted a spectacular growth of 6.4% in 2011, the economy slowed down with an expected growth rate of 0.3 per cent in 2012. Furthermore, investment was sluggish, while remittances have never recovered to the pre-crisis level. Ultimately, after expanding by 40 per cent in 2011, exports have grinded to a standstill. Given that external economic outlook remains dim, further economic gains should be sought via more comprehensive domestic structural reforms for boosting country’s competitiveness. This imperative brings the barriers to trade issues, which are long overdue, to the top of the Government’s policy and regulatory reform agenda. Furthermore, as agriculture has been in a vicious year-cycle of adverse climate conditions in 2012 the domestic producers need various cross-board improvements to offset the negative effects on competitiveness the climate might have. CONTEXT: With the small domestic market, further economic growth should be increasingly export-led, therefore expansion and diversification in trade is of utmost importance. On the foreign trade regime side, the potential to open further is almost exhausted, with only FTA with Turkey and DCFTA with the European Union remaining among the major regional trade liberalization deals to be accomplished in the short run. The DCFTA with the European Union is clearly an opportunity for the Moldovan economy to tap into the opportunities on the common EU market and benefit from more access for Moldovan exports, foreign investments, including FDI, etc. The agrifood sector will also benefit in medium and long term, but may face difficulties in coping with the increased competition from EU firms. This may in turn lead to consequences for those employed, particularly from the rural areas. In-depth analysis of the trade liberalization with EU and impact of DCFTA and its components on overall human development in Moldova has been recently undertaken as part of the 2012 National Human Development Report of UNDP. Further stimuli to the trade expansion and diversification should be probably sought on with the respect to internal barriers to trade. Such barriers may range from the quality of transport infrastructure and logistics, availability of quality infrastructure, and regulatory issues including customs administration, certification goods, tax burden and administration, transaction costs, competition issues along the value chain. All these issues ultimately represent costs for the Moldovan business and as such may dent and undermine competitiveness of Moldovan companies and goods on abroad markets. While there is significant room for improvement in Moldova on most of the all abovementioned aspects, these are mostly formal and informal regulatory issues that came recently to the fore. Thus, this report will seek to identify and prioritize key internal barriers to foreign trade with regards to agrifood exports (fresh fruit and vegetables) and provide relevant and feasible policy options and specific regulatory recommendations that could lead to dismantlement of the identified barriers. The prioritization shall be based on several criteria to be agreed with the majority of key stakeholders. At same time, one of the key criteria is impact in overcoming a particular barrier and the feasibility of finding suitable solutions in short-term. Scope of work
The main scope of work is to develop a National Study on key internal barriers to trade in the fresh fruits and vegetables subsector in Moldova, including feasible policy and regulatory recommendations and options to overcome such barriers in a short and, where feasible, in a longer term. Furthermore, the team of consultants shall be able to address key policy recommendations in providing needed input in the modernization and adaptation of the existing regulatory framework, particularly through providing conceptual inputs to draft regulatory acts to amend the existing framework in the concerned areas. For detailed information, including the scope of work for international and national consultant, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference. Requirements for experience
For the international consultant:
For the national consultant:
Documents to be included
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
Financial proposal
The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including daily fee, travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days). The International Consultant is expected to undertake 3 working visits to Moldova. No travel is envisaged for the National Consultant under this assignment.
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Republic of Moldova 
