Abstract. In this paper we determine and analyze the impact of the exchange rate variation over the international trade of Romania. We highlighted the sense of the relationship between exchange rate and exports or imports, but the intensity between the variables and the lags that characterize the interdependency between them. In the context of actual great imbalances in the global economy and other risks (financial, political or social) that drive to the decrease in aggregate demand on global level, we consider that external competitivity became one of the key variable for the economic growth in Romania like an integrated process in the European economy.

Keywords: exchange rate; import; export; competitiveness; volatility.