Search

The article explains the relationship existing between the border effects and technical barriers to trade existing in the different Eastern European (EU) countries. The magnitude of the border effects is shown to significantly decline for the products with less technical barriers.

Eastern European and Baltic States increased foreign trade during Jan-Jun 1997. Eastern European exports increased 5% compared with a 2% increase in 1996. Eastern European imports increased 8% compared with a 13% increase in 1996. Baltic States exports increased by 23% and imports increased by 29%. There were changes in the supply side rather than the demand side of the economic equation for this region.

Trade information between the European Union (EU) and Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) from 1990 to 1994 are examined to determine the emerging industrial specialization patterns in CEECs. Empirical results have revealed a division in the manufacturing competence of CEECs. High-tech oriented countries have a highly-developed trade relationship with the EU while manufacturing-based countries focus on trade diversification.

The recent introduction of Eastern European wine has been popular because it is of high quality and is relatively inexpensive compared to Western European wines. Approximately 700 million litres more wine has been sold since 1991 and the 1995 take-home market values approximately 4.9 billion pounds sterling. Experts forecast British wine to have the slowest rate of growth in sales because of production constraints and inexpensive international competition.

An analysis of the trade patterns that characterize the east European and Baltic nations and of those countries' trade policies is presented. In eastern Europe, intraregional trade, as a percentage of total trade, fell 15-65% in the 1989-94 period. Over the same period, eastern European trade with the European Union increased 35-140%. Statistics do not conclusively demonstrate that eastern Europe's intraregional trade decline reversed in 1995-96.

An overview of the foreign trade situation in eastern Europe's transition economies in 1996 is presented. The transition economies' foreign trade growth slowed sharply, in the year's first six months, due to weak demand for imports in western Europe, the appreciation of eastern European currencies, and the region's slow rate of industrial restructuring.

According to a new ITC market study, several countries in central and eastern Europe are emerging as promising markets for fruit juices. Although these markets are still small and account [...]

The general increase in trade between the European Union (EU) and eastern Europe has included significantly higher outward processing trade (OPT). OPT, concentrated in apparel, textiles, and other labor-intensive sectors, accounted for 18.5% of eastern Europe's exports to the EU in 1994, and eastern Europe accounted for 37% of the EU's OPT imports. OPT between the EU and eastern Europe in the 1988-1994 period is examined.

The transition economies, those of eastern Europe and the nations of the former Soviet Union, enjoyed rapidly growing foreign trade in 1995. In the first six months of 1995, the value of exports from the transition economies rose by about one third, while the value of imports into those countries rose about 30%. Eastern Europe's strong economic recovery and the western market economies' steady growth fueled the east's trade growth.

The world has witnessed many dramatic changes over the past five years. From the fall of the Berlin Wall, to the fledgling democracy being built in Russia, to the now [...]

Despite inherent risks and uncertainties, U.S. agricultural exporters have found some rewarding opportunities in the emerging market economies of Eastern Europe. In the following special chart section, FAS analysts Ernest [...]

This resource guide is designed to assist U.S. businesses seeking market opportunities in the New Independent States. It was prepared by Juanita Adams, Susan Holly, and Jim Pinkelman of the [...]

THROUGHOUT MOST OF THE post-World War II era, trade between the United States and Eastern Europe was minuscule. The United States maintained high tariff barriers on imports from most Eastern [...]

Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) saw a marked increase in their exports in the first half of 1994. The upswing in exports was in sharp contrast to the first half of 1993 which saw weak export activity. The balance of trade in Eastern Europe strongly improved due to an increase in exports and a decline in imports. Trade balances in the CIS countries varied widely; in Russia, exports to non-CIS countries expanded in the first half of 1994. The Baltic States' increase in exports were offset by an increase in imports.

Barter and other forms of international trading are as old as history. The literature, both academic and popular, is full of fascinating stories telling about trading baby chickens for petroleum and machine tools for chemicals. But there is little about the pricing problems that reciprocal trade brings. Shadow prices, fudged markups, third country currencies, amortization, discounting revenue and costs to their present value play a vital role. This article centers on the East European countries, but the concepts are pertinent to any country where barter or countertrade is used., The last six years have seen wrenching changes in world business, perhaps the most profound in modern history. The collapse of the Soviet Union, separation of the Baltic states, defiance [...]

Most Western firms use countertrade as a marketing tool with which to gain market access, secure sources of raw and processed materials and develop low-cost supply sources of intermediate products. Countertrade can also be used by cash-strapped countries as an alternative trade financing technique for importing goods and services. A study of the attitudes of Canadian executives towards countertrade with East European trade partners reveals that countertrade does not play a significant role in Canadian-East European trade relations.

Intra-industry trade is the simultaneous import and export of a specific class of item such as a manufactured good. When analyzed using the ratios developed by Grubel and Lloyd, the intra-industry trade from 1980 to 1990 between the EC and former members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance of Eastern Europe, individually and in aggregate, is not adequately described. The effects of trade liberalization by the EC facilitated trade in the absence of any plan coordination in the East.

U.S. horticultural exports to central and east European countries (the CEECs)* may be small for now, but this is the opportune time to lay the groundwork for long-term market expansion [...]

Over the past century, Germany has repeatedly attempted to use trade as a tool of foreign policy vis-a-vis Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Against the background of continual German economic superiority, this article analyzes Germany's ability to apply trade leverage in terms of four other factors: the nature of the prevailing international trade regime, government views of trade leverage as a tool of statecraft, the degree of German state autonomy in setting trade policies, and the availability of an effective bureuacractic mechanism for controlling German imports and exports. The historical record demonstrates that beyond economic superiority, the application of trade leverage requires a permissive international trade regime, state acceptance of trade-based economic statecraft, an autonomous domestic regime, state acceptance of trade-based economic statecraft, an autonomous domestic regime, and a rigorous trade control bureaucracy. Surprisingly, this conjunction of factors, as they applied to Eastern Europe, occurred during both the Nazi period and the early years of the Federal Republic. The article closes by pointing out how two important factors -- the politicized nature of the East-West trade regime and the Federal Republic's high degree of state autonomy in setting Eastern trade policy -- are being eroded by political and economic change in Eastern Europe.

As the U.S. economy staggers forward, valiantly hoping to evade an economic and military sand trap in the Middle East, marketers are at their wits' ends trying to sell the [...]