Romania is explicitly mentioned 12 times in the report prepared by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), based on which the Trump administration decreed the imposition of 20% customs tariffs on European Union countries, triggering a trade war between the two sides of the Atlantic.
The document, titled “2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers,” looks at trade barriers imposed by America’s trading partners. The report also reviews practices deemed uncompetitive or certain cases of non-application of domestic law – one example being intellectual property rights infringement legislation – which, according to the administration, lead to a decrease in sales of American goods and products.
According to the administration, these practices and implicitly reduced sales of goods and products of American origin – including cultural ones – harm companies in the United States.
Trump administration highlights online piracy in Romania – There is a highly developed „torrent” community in our country
As for Romania, our country is referred to in the chapters regarding non-compliant practices in the area of online piracy (violations of intellectual property rights), as well as in the area of pharmaceuticals.
“Online piracy remains a concern due to notorious websites that are either hosted or registered in Romania. Low penalties (in Romania) for intellectual property rights violations hinder investigations and do not credibly deter future such crimes, so that law enforcement institutions choose to treat significant cases as tax evasion cases. Romania does not have an efficient and prompt mechanism through which intellectual property rights holders can file requests for the removal of infringing content by online commerce sites and hosting platforms.
Adequate resources, including additional training of competent institutions, are needed to improve the quality of law enforcement. While Romania has made progress in addressing concerns related to the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, the United States continues to closely monitor developments in the country,” the Trump administration document states.
In Romania, there is a very large community of Internet users who support and use so-called „torrent” sites, i.e. websites from which you can download free video games, movies, software products, electronic books, and other similar products.
America says that, despite requests, Romania refuses to update the list of innovative pharmaceutical products eligible for reimbursement
Meanwhile, in terms of the pharmaceutical industry, the Trump administration says that American manufacturers in the pharmaceutical industry, especially „innovative companies”, have identified „several challenges resulting from the failure of the Romanian Government to update, despite repeated requests, the list of innovative pharmaceutical products that are eligible for reimbursement within the national health system”.
„There are numerous such unresolved requests. Moreover, both innovative and generic pharmaceutical companies have withdrawn drugs from the Romanian market due to the fact that official regulated prices in Romania can fall below production costs,” according to the US administration report.
Romania would have been hit with 34% customs tariffs, were it not part of the EU
In the section dedicated to statistics in the USTR report, the Trump administration highlights the US trade deficit in goods with Romania, which in 2024 decreased slightly, to USD 2.65 billion, from USD 2.69 billion in 2023. In 2024, Romania features with exports of goods to the US of USD 3.9 billion, down 2.3% compared to 2023, and with imports of American goods of only USD 1.26 billion.
It should be noted that, in the case of Romania, had it not been in the EU and the unconventional calculation formula used by the Trump administration to identify reciprocal tariffs had been respected, then Romania would have been hit with a 34% customs duty, identical to that of China and similar to the 31% applied to exports from the Republic of Moldova to the US.
This is despite the fact that Romania, as the USTR report shows, does not apply significant non-tariff trade barriers to American goods and products.
However, the European Union was hit with 20% tariffs due to the trade surplus of USD 198.2 billion in 2024, which will also apply to goods and products exported by Romania.
It should also be noted that the tariff rates applied by the US do not take into account the trade balance of services, where the US has a surplus with Europe and Romania. The surplus in services with Europe amounts to USD 76.52 billion.
The surplus in services with Romania amount to USD 104 million, US exports reaching USD 1.2 billion, while Romanian exports stood at USD 0.91 billion. In the case of Romania’s exports of services, we are mainly referring to IT services. At the same time, US foreign direct investments in Romania amounted to USD 2.1 billion at the end of 2024, up 13.8% compared to 2023.
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