OECD Competition Assessment Reviews: Romania
During the past few years, Romania has recovered well from the global financial crisis. However, the country still faces structural problems, including poor competitiveness, that limit economic growth. Against this background, the OECD Competition Assessment Project analysed legislation in three sectors of the Romanian economy: construction, transport and food processing. Using the OECD Competition Assessment Toolkit to structure the analysis, the OECD identified 227 problematic regulations and made 152 specific recommendations on legal provisions that should be amended or repealed. This report identifies the sources of those benefits and, where possible, provides quantitative estimates. If these recommendations are implemented, there should be benefits to consumers in Romania and to the Romanian economy in all three sectors.
Transport
The various types of transport (road, rail and maritime) together generate a turnover of about 5.08% of Romania’s GDP and employs about 133 100 people. Although Romania’s road transport is among the most regulated in the European Union, its rail transport is one of the most liberalised rail transport markets. Road transport is constrained by unnecessary documentation, such as authorisations for vehicle repair, complicated payment of local taxes, display of vehicle plates and copies of transport licences. Rail transport suffers from unclear provisions relating to private and public railway infrastructure and the ambiguous position of Romania’s state-owned rail freight operator in regard to private operators. Inland waterway and maritime transport is constrained by the lack of transparency in tariff calculation, a lack of open competition for pilotage and towage services and undue discretion given to the Romanian Naval Authority (ANR) regarding compliance of market participants with state regulations.
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