Abigail Rupp: Romania has met four out of the five requirements for Visa Waiver

Romania has met four out of the five requirements for the Visa Waiver Program, which cannot be negotiated as the Congress has authority on this law, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest Abigail Rupp told a conference on Wednesday.

"On Visa Waiver, at this point, Visa Waiver is a Congressional requirement, it's a low that sets out what a country needs to do to meet the requirements for the Visa Waiver Program. Romania has met four out of the five requirements, and the last one it hasn't met yet, so it's not something that we, as the embassy, can negotiate about, it's something that is required by Congress. We'll continue to have these conversations with the Romanian partners and with the Congress and I would encourage any Romanian companies who are concerned about the Visa Waiver Program to work through their embassy, work through their partners in the US, to contact the US Congress, because they have the authority for this law," Abigail Rupp told a conference organised by Business Review.

"The vast majority of Romanians who apply for a visa, so more than 90 percent, who apply for a visa get a visa to the US," she added.

"One thing we can note about the US - Romanian relationship, and, certainly, the commercial relationship, is that we're growing in both directions. Our bilateral trade has gone up both US to Romania and Romania to the US, we had a record year last year, in terms of exports in both directions," Abigail Rupp said about the commercial relations.

"I think it's also important when you think about this idea 'Romania first', 'America first'. 'America first', for instance, doesn't mean America alone, it means America working with its partners, and Romania is an exceptional partner. We've had now 21 years of our official strategic partnership, but this year we're also able to mark 100 years of our relationships since Romania's unification, so we have a lot to be proud of," Rupp underscored. AGERPRES (RO - author: George Banciulea, editor: Oana Tilica; EN - author: Adina Panaitescu, editor: Rodica State)