Romania Takes Part in the EU-Latin America Summit

The latest EU-Latin America summit, which Romanias President Traian Basescu attended alongside 40 other European leaders, was in his opinion one of the most important in the last few years.

România Internațional, 28.01.2013, 13:28

The countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are a solution for the expansion of Romanian exports and reducing the country’s dependence on the negative developments in the euro zone in recent years, said Romania’s president Traian Basescu on Sunday in Santiago de Chile, the city hosting a summit bringing together the European Union and the CELAC states, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

In the opinion of the Romanian president, the main outcome of the meeting was a strategic partnership agreement between the EU and CELAC leaders with major benefits for bilateral trade, which stood at 200 billion dollars in 2012. The Romanian president said another reason for which Europeans are interested in consolidating this partnership is the fact that together, the EU-CELAC economies account for one third of the world’s GDP. In the last ten years, the European Union investment in Latin America and the Caribbean area has exceeded 400 billion euros. Traian Basescu also spoke about Romania’s interests in the area:

“In 2012, trade exchanges between Romania and the Latin American countries went up by 47%. Romania’s exports to the area amounted to 700 million euros, while Latin American exports to Romania stood at 600 million in the first 11 months of 2012.”

According to the president, Romanian companies now have the opportunity to boost their exports to Latin American markets, given the existing or soon to be signed trade agreements between the European Union and the states in the area.

Traian Basescu: “The framework created by this summit will allow Romanian companies to diversify their export markets. Just as in the last 2-3 years we have returned to the Arab world, we must also return to the Latin American states and enter the Caribbean markets so as to reduce our dependence on everything that happens in the European Union. We have learned our lesson from the euro zone crisis, the consequences of which we experienced last year and also this year, but hopefully it will be better in 2014. One thing is clear, though, that the CELAC states are a solution for the expansion of our foreign trade.”

President Basescu also spoke about the chances of Romanian companies to sign good contracts following a series of economic missions to the region. He mentioned the case of the Astra company based in Arad, which received an offer to export passenger, freight and underground train carriages to Brazil.