Free trade agreements contribute to regional development, further liberalization of foreign trade exchange and harmonization of trade rules with international standards. CEFTA, as an agreement on ...free trade of the countries of Southeast Europe, aims to ensure liberalization and facilitate trade conditions in the region by removing numerous barriers between member countries, while each of them implements an independent foreign trade policy. It includes very important areas such as: trade in goods and services, investments, public procurement, protection of intellectual property, etc. This agreement signifies a significant step toward enhancing cooperation and integration within the Southeast European region. However, establishing a legislative framework is just one aspect of a broader process; the utilization of opportunities depends on the efforts of signatory countries. Following the European Union, CEFTA signatory countries are critical foreign trade partners for the Republic of Serbia, consistently resulting in a positive trade balance. Sustaining this positive trend is of great importance. The aim of this paper is to point out the main aspects of this exchange, as well as to emphasize the additional efforts that must be made in order to improve the structure of trade exchange, i.e. to increase the participation of products with a higher degree of processing and added value.
This article investigates the trade and growth benefits of the CEFTA agreement for its members using panel econometric techniques and analysis of backward and forward linkages with the CEFTA and the ...European economies. Although the countries have not reached their end goal of membership of the European Union, the research shows that CEFTA has supported their economic growth. However, there is trade heterogeneity in terms of the extent to which individual countries use CEFTA value added in their manufacturing exports. Less-developed economies seem to rely more on regional (CEFTA) supply chains, while manufacturing-based economies are increasingly coming to rely on EU supply chains. The countries have not built a strong export advantage abroad, as very little of their value added is used in EU exports.
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Rad analizira stanje i strukturu privreda zemalja Zapadnog Balkana, njihove ekonomske karakteristike, kao i njihov međusobni uticaj, koji je prvenstveno izražen kroz spoljnotrgovinski aspekt i ...delovanje unutar sporazuma CEFTA 2006. Prikazujući osnovne makroekonomske indikatore, kao i strukturu izvoza i uvoza Albanije, Bosne i Hercegovine, Crne Gore, Severne Makedonije i Srbije, odnosno njihove najznačajnije spoljnotrgovinske partnere, autor daje uporednu analizu stanja privreda država Zapadnog Balkana i obrazlaže dominantnu ulogu Srbije u ovom regionu. I pored činjenice da sve posmatrane države najviše trguju sa EU, Srbija se izdvaja kao njihov drugi najznačajniji spoljnotrgovinski partner. Autor otkriva mesto i ulogu Srbije u privredi Zapadnog Balkana, dokazujući njenu lidersku poziciju u regionalnoj trgovini. Kao najveća privreda regiona i najveće tržište Zapadnog Balkana, Srbija je trgovinski dominantna u okviru sporazuma CEFTA 2006, a osim toga izdvaja se i kao neprikosnovena u privlačenju stranih direktnih investicija. Autor u radu obrazlaže i osnovne nedostatke srpske privrede, ali i odgovara na pitanje zašto i pored priliva stranih direktnih investicija od preko 22 milijarde evra, samo u prethodnih deset godina, Srbija nije uspela da ostvari značajan privredni rast.
In addition to the author's scientific work, the study -based on pragmatic experiences -analyses the factors that characterized Central European countries before the change of regime (1990) and then ...the foreign economic model through which Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia ("Visegrád 4") reached EU membership in 2004. The study highlighted that, with different depths, in all countries concerned economic policies were characterized by liberal bankruptcy regulations and strict conditions of competition, so that they could prove their ability to meet the condition of a functioning market economy for EU membership1. The export-oriented model, built on efficient inflow of foreign direct investment and high-tech in the early 1990s, was implemented by the late 1990s to demonstrate that these states were ready to meet another condition of EU membership, namely to meet the challenges of the internal market.2 This transformation represented a problem for the current account balance in the 1990s (mainly due to the loss of traditional national export capacities) only in the middle of the decade, and it was only at the end of the decade that trade balances showed surplus with the EU. The total external equilibrium of the Visegrád countries was maintained by the fact that the inflow of FDI had not yet started to conclude in the withdrawal of profits from recent investments in Central Europe, and the countervailing effect of EU net transfers, which began to arrive later parallelly with the start of the withdrawal of FDI dividends. The CEFTA co-operation concluded in 1992 followed the economic liberalization timetable of that of the Visegrád Four with the EU parallelly but did not go beyond its depth for political prudence, thus providing full opening to each other only after and through EU membership, more precisely the liberalisation in services or in sensitive agricultural trade. The CEFTA treaty was expanded to the Balkans after 1995 and has been and is still a good example for countries that do not want to stay in an ex-Soviet or ex-Yugoslav economic integration but is a good method for them to prepare for the earliest possible EU membership.
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The paper points out the changes that have occurred in the way of life and business due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and emphasizes the need to include indicators of certain health risks and threats in ...the modern development of the concept of global security. The current pandemic has endangered life in every country, primarily with a high mortality rate, but also by limiting economic flows. In order to establish the normal flow of critical goods in such extraordinary circumstances, the so-called "Green Corridors" within six CEFTA countries. Priority of passage and short stay at the border for food, medicine and protective equipment, at a number of border crossings during 24 hours, are the main characteristics of the established regime, which quickly manifested its positive effects, primarily in stabilizing the national markets with key resources.
This paper analyses the “Open Balkan” initiative, using some of the theoretical assumptions of economic and, consequently, political populism in order to show that the economic benefits of this ...initiative do not differ too much from the existing economic benefits of the CEFTA (2006) agreement, of which all three countries (signatories of the “Open Balkan” initiative) are members. However, unlike the economic ones, the political benefits of this initiative can be seen much more clearly. Specifically, the “Open Balkan” initiative can be seen as a mechanism for “bridging” the waiting period for these countries to join the EU, overcoming some of the obstacles of the existing bilateral trade agreements that the countries from this region have with the EU. We will show, using quantitative content analysis, that the “Open Balkan” initiative is a political populist concept directed outward, i.e., toward EU leaders, and not an initiative that can bring something completely new and different compared to all previous bilateral and multilateral initiatives of this type.
We propose a simple and flexible econometric approach to quantify ex-ante the impact of comprehensive trade liberalization or protection with the structural gravity model. Specifically, we argue that ...the difference between the estimates of border indicator variables for affected and non-affected countries can be used to measure unobservable changes in bilateral trade costs in response to hypothetical policy changes. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods, we focus on the integration between the countries from the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and the European Union (EU); an important policy application that has not been studied before due to a lack of data. We overcome this challenge by utilizing a new dataset on trade and production that covers all EU countries and all CEFTA members (except for Kosovo). The partial equilibrium estimates that we obtain confirm the validity of our methods, while the corresponding general equilibrium effects point to significant and heterogeneous potential gains for the CEFTA countries from joining the EU. The proposed methods are readily applicable to other applications, e.g., Brexit or joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), and can also be extended to ex-post analysis.
•Propose a new approach to quantify comprehensive trade liberalization or protection.•Quantify an agreement between CEFTA and the EU (also for services without tariffs).•Borders between CEFTA and EU countries are large, larger than between EU countries.•Large heterogeneity of border estimates across sectors and by direction of flows.•An agreement with the EU would lead to large welfare gains for the CEFTA countries.
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The regional integration with the CEFTA significantly influenced the
liberalisation of the market, which led to an increase in exports of
agri-food products in the Western Balkan economies. The main ...objective of
this paper is to examine the impact of the CEFTA on the export of agrifood
products of Western Balkan economies on the global and regional markets. In
this context, comparative advantages have been analysed, and the gravity
model based on panel data has been estimated. According to the results, all
the Western Balkan economies have comparative advantages in exporting on the
international market. Results of the gravity model estimation showed that
free trade agreements with the CEFTA positively affected the intensification
of agri-food product exports. Western Balkan economies have similar economic
development and competitiveness levels. Thus, reintegrating the market
established by CEFTA affected the export of agri-food products.
The paper aims to identify patterns and country-specific determinants of
intra-industry trade (IIT) in agri-food products between Bosnia and
Herzegovina (BiH) and other CEFTA 2006 parties in the ...period 2008-2018. The
purpose of the paper is to contribute to filling the gap in the empirical
literature on IIT of the South East European countries, especially in regard
to non-manufacturing sectors. To investigate IIT intensity and structure the
analysis employed Grubel- Lloyd indices and GHM methodology based on
relative unit values. In order to examine the impact of various determinants
on IIT in agri-food products, a random-effects Heckman selection model was
estimated, following a sector-level approach in the analysis. The analysis
indicates a lower level of IIT than expected and a strong dominance of its
vertical type in all BiH bilateral relations within CEFTA 2006. The
empirical results also suggest that the major determinants positively
affecting IIT in agri-food products include the size of the trading
economies, the similarity in their ethnic structure, membership in the
common regional trade agreement, and common borders. By contrast, the
results indicate that IIT is negatively affected by differences between the
trading economies in terms of productivity and gross domestic product per
capita.
This open access book asks whether there is space for particularism in a constitutional democracy which would limit the implementation of EU law. National identity claims are a key factor in shaping ...our times and the ongoing evolution of the European Union. To assess their impact this collection focuses on the jurisprudence of Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, as they play an essential role in giving life to particularism. By taking particularism as the prism through which they explore the question, the contributors offer a new analytical scheme to evaluate the judicial invocation of identity. This requires an interdisciplinary approach: the study draws on comparative constitutional law, theory, comparative-empirical material and normative-philosophical perspectives. This is a fresh and thought-provoking new study on an increasingly important question in EU law. The ebook editions of this book are available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.
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