Regional Integration and International Trade in the Context of EU Eastward Enlargement

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in ABSTRACTThe paper aims to explore international trade flows of the countries involved in the EU eastward enlargement processes -the current EU members (EU15) and the candidate countries (CC12). The empirical results of the study allow us to conclude that the behaviour of bilateral trade flows within the countries involved in EU eastward enlargement accords to the normal rules of gravitation, having statistically significant spatial biases caused by the trade relations, between the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) countries (the BSR bias), the border countries (the border bias) and the EU member and candidate countries (the East-West bias). The East-West trade relations are still rather weakly developed and there is a statistically significant difference in international trade patterns between the two groups -the current EU members and the applicant countries. The lessons of the Baltic Sea Region in integrating countries with different economic and political backgrounds and developing bilateral trade relations are valuable in supporting EU eastward enlargement and the reintegration of new member countries into Europe.JEL-Classification: F15, C5, R15

Los acuerdos comerciales bilaterales: el caso Colombiano (1990-2015)

“…Por otra parte, se han desarrollado investigaciones puramente empíricas de los efectos del bilateralismo eje-radios; en Europa (Martin & Turrion, 2001;Laaser & Schrader, 2002;Adam, Kosma & McHugh, 2003;Paas, 2003), en Israel (Deltas et al, 2006) y en Singapur, Japón, y Estados Unidos (Chong & Hur, 2008).…”

Which commercial partners are important for the most recently admitted EU countries?

“…Many studies con…rm that there was an important trade integration process among these European areas during the 1990s (Gros and Steinherr, 1995;Brenton and Gros, 1997;Abraham and Konings, 1999;Fontagné et al, 1999;Bussière et al, 2008). Others argue, however, that this integration was far from complete (Faucompret et al 1999;Paas, 2003).…”

Trade effects of the Europe agreements: A theory-based gravity approach

“…Paas (2003) and Laaser and Schrader (2002) use cross-sectional data and find that integration among the members 26 J. Spies and H. Marques of the Baltic sea region is more intense than between the CEECs and the EU.…”

“…Early cross-sectional studies that specifically point to the geographical restructuring of trade flows arising from the implementation of the EAs report insignificant or even negative coefficients for East-West integration (Laaser and Schrader 2002;Paas 2003). Studies relying on panel data, however, find significant positive estimates in the range of 11 to 130% (Martı´n and Turrio´n 2001;Adam, Kosma and McHugh 2003;De Benedictis, De Santis and Vicarelli 2005;Herderschee and Qiao 2007).…”