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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/256
28 and 30 November 2005

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: ROMANIA

Continued liberalization should improve efficiency and competitiveness

Since its last review in 1999, Romania has continued to liberalize its trade regime. This, in turn, has contributed to a positive overall economic perfomance during the last few years. Romania has also embarked on a reinvigorated privatization programme to increase efficiency and attract more foreign investment, still largely untapped and low by regional standards, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of Romania.

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> More on Romania
  

Romania’s trade regime would gain from tariff reforms. Indeed, the reduction of the gap between applied and bound MFN tariffs, mainly on agricultural products, would improve the predictability of the regime. Moreover, the reduction of applied MFN tariffs should contribute to diversify the geographical pattern of Romania’s trade away from its preferential partners, according to the report.

The report also notes that further liberalization in services should improve efficiency in the economy, including the competitiveness of Romania’s exports, especially by reducing costs related to financial services, telecoms, and transport.

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government, will be the basis for the Trade Policy Review (TPR) by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO.

The following documents are available in MS Word format.

• Secretariat report
  > Contents and summary observations (10 pages, 95KB)
  > Economic environment (10 pages, 252KB)
  > Trade and investment regimes (15 pages, 207KB)
  > Trade policies and practices by measure (34 pages, 512KB)
  > Trade policies by sector (31 pages, 325KB)
  > Appendix tables (24 pages, 1259KB)
    
• Government report (25 pages, 442KB)
    
• Revisions of the above documents may be issued approximately 2 weeks after the meeting.
    
• Chairperson's concluding remarks
    
• Minutes of the meeting are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.
    
• Questions and answers by WTO Members are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.
    

Note  back to top

Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member under review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.

Print copies of previous TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop.

The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.

Schedule of forthcoming reviews  back to top

Malaysia: 16 and 18 January 2006
Djibouti: 27 February and 1 March 2006