Publicat pe 24/02/2020

Bucharest, February 24^th, 2020: The President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR), Mr. Mihai Daraban, received, on Monday, February 24^th, a visit from a delegation of the Scottish members of the British Parliament, in order to establish the priorities regarding trade with the European Union states, in the context of the implementation of the new provisions of the UK withdrawal agreement from the EU.

As part of this meeting, the prospects for British exit from the European Union, as well as Scotland’s plans to maintain the links created and to capitalize on new opportunities, including the possibility of entering the European Union in the distant future, were presented.

„An important aspect, which influences the volume of Romanian trade, is the limited access of Romanian companies to markets other than those of the EU. Thus, Romania’s exports are concentrated at a rate of 76.8% with the EU, 9.3% with non-EU countries and 13.9% with countries outside Europe. At the level of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania we have made and we make intense efforts to counterbalance this commercial captivity, even if it is not a negative one. Thus, only in the last two years, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania has organized or participated in more than 40 events destined to internationalize the Romanian business, by expanding on markets other than the European Union”, stated the president of CCIR, Mr. Mihai Daraban.

Scottish members of the British Parliament discussed the main economic areas of common interest, such as: the IT sector focused on business and video games development, energy generation through renewable sources, export of alcoholic beverages, business consulting services, financial services stock exchange trading.

Present at the meeting, H.E., Mr. Dan Mihalache, Ambassador of Romania to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has proposed setting up a bilateral chamber of commerce to bring together Romanian and Scottish businessmen.

Background

According to information provided by ONRC, at the level of 2018, the value of trade between Romania and the United Kingdom amounted to 4.6 billion Euros, and for the first ten months of 2019, 3.6 billion Euros were registered. The total number of UK companies active in Romania in December 2019 was 5,957, with a total subscribed share capital of over one billion Euros.