Files
Abstract
The paper is part of the studies concerning
trade patterns and agri-food foreign trade policies in the
EU enlargement context, aiming to assess the
competitive trade advantages and disadvantages of the
Romania’s agri-food products in the foreign trade
relations. The analysis focuses on the challenges of the
trade liberalization and its influence on the
intensification of the commercial exchanges, the supply
diversification and on the trade balance equilibrium,
faced by Romania’s agri-food sector over the transition
and pre-accession period.
The structural reforms of the transition and EU
accession preparations induced paramount changes in
Romania’s agri-food trade pattern, i.e. a fluctuating
evolution of the agri-food foreign trade, either in
correlation with the variations in the agricultural
supply, the performance deficiencies of the agri-food
sector that provoked disequilibria on the export market,
or with the effect of political changes upon the trade
flows. The recent integration in the Single Market
recalls a special attention on the opportunities for the
competitive producers to attract benefits offered by the
enlarged access possibilities and the openness to third
countries. In this context, an in-depth analysis of the
bilateral trade relation between Romania and EU has
been performed by using an alternative method of the
comparative trade advantage index, based on the one
developed by Vollrath [1].
The results emphasize the identification of either the
competitive agri-food trade potential, or of the sensitive
zones that could be affected by the external competition
post-accession, as well as the needed improvements in
the Romanian agri-food sector’s competitiveness.