New Insights into the Trade Relationship between China and Romania

The main objective of the present paper is to identify the most relevant features and developments of the trade in goods between Romania and China between 2000 and 2012, drawing upon the statistical data provided by the Romanian Ministry of Economy and the National Institute of Statistics. The result of our analysis shows that, although the Romanian and Chinese economies reveal complementarities able to generate considerable opportunities for trade, the bilateral trade relations could not be developed yet to their full potential. The Chinese-Romanian trade in goods kept rising during the last decade, reaching a record high in 2011 in spite of the economic crisis, but its overall level remains low. Exports and imports are still unbalanced and goods are often channeled through intermediary countries because direct connections between Romanian and Chinese companies are still poor. Also, the trade structure had an unfavorable evolution from Romania’s standpoint. Nevertheless, the outlook is encouraging, considering the new opportunities created by the Chinese leadership decisions to more intensely foster and stimulate economic cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries in future years.