November 7, 2003

Romania Temporarily Suspended Duties on Imported Pork Cuts
 

In October 2003, the GOR issued regulations (Government Decision 1146, amended by Government Decision 1185) which temporarily suspended duties on imported pork cuts.

The new regulation became official on October 14 when it was published, in its final form, in the Official Gazette. The validity of the regulation will be effective until December 31, 2003 and is effective for all countries, including imports from the United States, the European Union, and the Central European Free Trade Area (CEFTA). Through the same Decision, the GOR also abrogated safeguard measures applied against Poland since July 2003. The GOR will review the results of this trade action and will decide if an extension is necessary.

The measure was needed because domestic supply of quality swine meat for processing is very limited, though livestock numbers and overall meat production has increased slightly increasing for the last two years. AgBucharest, in cooperation with the U.S. Meat Export Federation, identified this issue and repeatedly requested to Romanian officials better access into Romania for select pork cuts. Domestic pork prices rose after July 2003, when the country enforced a 45% safeguard tariff on Polish pork, thus reducing Polish sales in Romania.

The waiver on import duties is expected to result in better export opportunities for U.S. frozen pork cuts and offalls. Albeit not a major supplier of the Romanian meat processing industry, the U.S. shipped over 500 MT of swine meat in 2002. This figure more than doubled only in the first five months of 2003.  

Source: USDA