The integration of Western Balkan industries into the EU internal market: recent trends in the trade of manufactured goods

Branković, Aleksandra and Jovičić, Elena (2014) The integration of Western Balkan industries into the EU internal market: recent trends in the trade of manufactured goods. In: The Europe of tomorrow : creative, digital, integrated / 9th Annual international academic conference on European integration. University American college, Skopje, pp. 355-371. ISBN 978-608-4607-31-1

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Abstract

The EU accession process of the Western Balkan countries has been accompanied by a major increase in commodity trade with the EU Member States. Consequently, the EU has become the most important trading partner of the Western Balkan countries, but exports from the Western Balkans have been mainly based on low value‐added products (resource‐ and labor‐intensive ones). This chapter sets out to analyze changes in the dynamics and pattern of trade in products of the manufacturing industry between the Western Balkan region and the EU over the past couple of years. Particular attention has been paid to changes that occurred in the wake of the recent global economic crisis. For the purpose of analysis, the data on commodity trade provided by Eurostat has been used. Based on the results of this analysis, we have concluded that the region, as a whole, continues to specialize in the export of labor‐intensive products, such as garments and footwear, and resource‐intensive products, such as metals and wood. When more sophisticated goods, such as machinery and transport equipment, are considered, an increase in the volume of exports, as well as their share, can be observed. It also seems that some of the countries are specializing in the production and export of certain types of machinery and transport equipment, but we could not observe a common regional pattern.

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