Romania supports trade negotiations with the USA
Officials in Bucharest hope that the trade war between America and Europe will not escalate
Bogdan Matei, 09.04.2025, 14:00
Romania supports the continuation of negotiations between the European Union and the USA, in order to reach a solution that would limit the effects of the increase in customs tariffs on the global economy, Romania’s interim president, Ilie Bolojan, said. The president believes the so-called measures of retaliation the EU could adopt in the coming period would further escalate the trade conflict and could even lead to economic recession, including in Romania. Right now, it is difficult to estimate specifically what the consequences of these measures will be, Ilie Bolojan pointed out.
“The responses that some states, some large markets give will only complicate things further. In this context, the measures of retaliation the EU could adopt in the coming period would actually mean increasing the costs of escalation, which could be even higher for our economy, because tariffs on top of tariffs mean inflation, a decrease in purchasing power and the risk of an economic recession”.
For the time being, analyses show that Romania will not be significantly affected, because it does not have a significant export component in its trade relations with the USA, the interim president also said. However, Romanian companies that export products to the United States will be less competitive on the market there, the Romanian official argued. “Sectors that will be impacted will be aluminum and pharmaceutics in particular, and the area of components that include steel and aluminum. However, there will be a significant impact on the trade of the United States with the European Union, because the two are the largest global markets, the United States being the EU’s largest trading partner. And, therefore, indirectly, Romanian companies that are integrated into European value chains will be affected, Germany being Romania’s most important trading partner, and the German economy contributing a third of the EU’s exports to the USA”, Ilie Bolojan explained.
In turn, the president of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, Radu Hanga, told Radio Romania that recent turbulence on the stock market, which resulted in a drop of about 6%, is significantly lower than those registered in Western Europe or the Far East, where the impact was 10-15%. Almost 400 Romanian companies are listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, and their importance will grow “in a world where countries are growing increasingly autarchic, more isolated and trying to solve their needs for goods and services locally to the greatest extent possible”, Radu Hanga explained. (VP)
