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Minister Irimescu: Romania could export pork to the US after getting the equivalence on the inspection system
Romania could export pork to the US after getting the equivalence on the inspection system for meat, stated the minister of agriculture,Achim Irimescu during the meeting with the delegation of the Department for Agriculture of the US – USDA Washington, led by Michael Scuze, deputy secretary.
The MADR head presented a series of significant data regarding the Romanian agriculture, focusing on certain aspects which referto the commercial exchanges between the two states. When referring to the value of exports of food of Romania to the US in 2015 minister Irimescu stated that it was of 22.9 million euro, while the US imports reached the level of 75.9 million euro, with a deficit of 53 million euro. Thus, as compared to 2014, the imports from the US doubled (+105.9%) while exports to this destination advanced by only 1.97% determining a growth by 3.7 times of the commercial deficit.
In 2015, the value of food commercial flows with the US had a share of 0.85% in the food foreign trade of Romania and 3.1% reported to the exchanges with third countries to the European Union.
Another issue discussed with the American officials referred to the challenges which climatic changes have on agriculture as a whole. In this sense, minister Irimescu showed his interest for the studies of the American researches in the domain, wishing to identify transfer ways of this knowledge to the Romanian farmers.
According to him, agriculture without scientific research has no future.
‘I express the hope that in the future the joint projects which have already started in the domain of research and agriculture education represent the starting point of fruitful cooperation on all agricultural domains: protection of soil, ecological agriculture, seeds production, irrigation, know-how in the farm management, this all is part of the potential domains for collaboration’ the Romanian minister added.
In their tern, the American officials stated that the commercial relations with Romania are important from the point of view of the Partnership for Commerce and Investment (TTIP) between the EU and the US, economic and social relations, adding the strategic dimension of extreme importance.
At the same time, the members of the USDA delegation stated that in the perspective of experience exchange between Romania and the US, the US seeks solutions for the Romanian students to go to the US, the role of education for the future of agriculture being an overwhelming one. In this context, minister Irimescu showed his interest in identifying some possibilities through which, in the future, agronomy graduates to go to the US farms for a limited period of time and understand the advantages which an adequate management bring to the development of a business, as a whole.