The Emerging Countries in the International Trade of the EU

Over the past ten years, the emerging economies, being exporters of manufactured goods, and rentier states, being exporters of commodities, have eroded the dominant position of developed countries in the world market; for the latter, they have also represented opportunities for growth and been partners in the international division of labour. As the EU15 has a fair share in these dynamic markets, its global exports have only slightly receded. Such an achievement, which was mainly made in neighbouring markets, is put at risk by the economic downturn which is affecting European emerging countries and rentier states in particular.