The Evolution Of The Romanian Exports’ Competitiveness On The International Market During 2001 – 2014

The research is devoted to the analysis of Romanian exports competitiveness determined by the number of won/lost ranks in the world exports rankings (hierarchy) in 2014 as compared with 2001. The paper reveals the existence of four categories of exports, based on SITC (two digits), classified in function of the decreasing number of won positions in the world exports hierarchy as follows: category I with high competitiveness potential (HCP), 68-33 won positions; category II with competitiveness potential (CP), 29-15 won positions; category III with medium competitiveness potential (MCP),14-8 won positions; category IV with low competitiveness potential (LCP), 7-0 won positions. A comparison is made between Romania and new EU member countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia ) which were positioned upward and downward Romania, within each group of exports by the following three categories (weak, medium and high potential of competitiveness). According to the EU Competitiveness Report on 2015, Romania belongs to the category of EU countries with modest but improving competitiveness. Romania is a country with an emerging economy, which is characterized by a structure of export of goods marked notably by a relatively low share of high-tech groups of approx. 8% (Financial Stability Report, 2015 BNR).One of the main conclusions of the paper is that Romania on international export markets is rather a price-taker than a price-maker due to a relatively low degree of the national exported goods and services. Another conclusion is related to a promising improvement for certain groups of export goods competitiveness especially for the raw materials and semi-products (II-IV group of SITC), where at macro-level the trade balance of Romania is positive, unlike the case of the majority of EU member countries, meaning the necessity to improve and stimulate export diversification especially via smart specialisation and promoting higher value-added product exports.