Over the past three years, Russia has been Moldova’s second-largest trade partner and bilateral trade reached $768.3 mln in 2016, said Calmic, who co-chairs the Russian-Moldovan intergovernmental commission.

The minister noted that Moldova’s exports to Russia dropped 40% after Moscow had introduced customs duties and other restrictions for 19 categories of Moldovan goods, which account for 80% of the country’s overall exports.

In January-June 2017, Moldova’s exports to Russia reached $116.6mln, a 20% growth compared with the same period of last year, while the imports totaled $261.2 mln, a 4% increase, the minister said.

Early last year, Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip pledged to step up dialogue with Moscow to normalize bilateral ties, including in trade and economic, energy and migration areas.