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Romania United States
Relations with the United States were initiated on a
limited
scale in the early 1960s, and ambassadors were exchanged
in 1964.
But with the United States' increased involvement in the
Vietnam
War, relations deteriorated. In the late 1960s, following
Romanian
condemnation of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
and the
opening of the Paris peace talks, political relations
between the
two states improved significantly, but economic relations
remained
minimal because of United States restrictions on trade
with Eastern
Europe.
Evidence of improved relations between the nations was
President Nixon's visit to Romania in August 1969--the
first visit
by an American head of state to a communist country since
the 1945
Yalta Conference. Nixon received an enthusiastic welcome,
and a
wide range of international problems were discussed. The
countries
agreed upon the mutual establishment of libraries, the
opening of
negotiations for the conclusion of a consular convention,
and the
development and diversification of economic ties.
Ceausescu
visited the United States in October 1970 to attend the
twentyfifth anniversary session of the UN General Assembly.
Nixon moved to strengthen economic relations with
Romania, and
in 1972 the United States Congress debated granting
most-favored-
nation status. In 1975 a three-year agreement made Romania
the
first East European country to receive the special trade
status,
and in 1981 bilateral trade reached US$1 billion. But
because of
persistent reports of human rights violations in Romania,
and the
regime's decision to impose an education tax on applicants
for exit
visas, the United States Congress hesitated to renew
most-favored-
nation status.
In November 1985, Secretary of State George Schultz
visited
Bucharest and warned that Romania could lose
most-favored-nation
status unless it changed its human rights policies. Both
sides
agreed to establish a system of consultation on human
rights
issues. Romania did not abide by the agreement, however,
and at the
beginning of 1987 it was removed from the list of
countries allowed
to export certain goods--mainly raw materials--duty-free
to the
United States. The United States Congress voted to suspend
mostfavored -nation status for six months because of Romanian
limitations of religious freedom, restrictions on
emigration, and
persecution of its Hungarian minority. The Reagan
administration,
however, succeeded in getting congressional approval for
its
recommendation to renew the status, hoping the action
would
encourage Romania to improve its human rights record.
In February 1988, Deputy Secretary of State John
Whitehead
visited Bucharest and restated United States disapproval
of
Romania's human rights policies. Ceausescu, in turn,
accused the
United States of meddling in Romanian internal affairs.
Later the
same month, the United States State Department announced
that
Romania had relinquished its most-favored-nation trade
status.
The deterioration in relations continued, and in March
1989 the
United States Department of State called off plans for a
meeting
with high-ranking Romanian officials, warning that a
further
crackdown against critics of the regime would have
negative
consequences for bilateral relations.
Data as of July 1989
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