Romanians who wish to leave their country must be prepared to pay a price. The bribes extracted for exit papers range from 4.000 marks for a child to 10.000 for an adult. The Ceaucescu regime also collects 7.900 marks from the West German Government for each ethnic German allowed to emigrate to West Germany. Persons wishing to emigrate must sell all of their real property at low. fixed government rates. In addition. no money may be taken out of the country. The emigration process is lengthy and approval is not assured. In the meantime. applicants may suffer demotion or dismissal from jobs. dismissal from universities. eviction from apartments. denial of ration cards. and loss of citizenship which are all common government responses. Persons wishing to leave Romania become in effect exiles within their own country. Romania has enjoyed MFN status for the past 10 years. During this time the persecution and restricted emigration policies have continued. Indeed the only change over the past decade has been an increasing trade deficit with Romania which exported almost $1 billion in goods to the United States in 1985. including $134 million in duty free imports. creating a deficit of over $700 million. Romania. a country which trains terrorists and exacts a very high price from those who wish to emigrate. does not deserve the trade preferences of MFN.
Identified stereotypes
The Romanian regime is portrayed as systematically extracting bribes and persecuting those who wish to leave.