Intra-Industry Trade Dynamics in the East-West Relations

We analyze the development of the Austrian, Dutch, German, Italian and Swedish trade structures (SITC two-digit levels) with Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic. We revealed that the increase of the intra-industry trade was a major feature of the trade development between 1989 and 1994. The structure of the trade between the EU and the CEEC approaches the structure of the intra-EU trade. The early leadership of Austria in relation with the CEEC was later replaced by Germany. The Netherlands showed a higher flexibility of total trade and of the trade with the CEEC than the other analyzed countries.