Verification of the New Trade Theory in EU's Trade with CEECs

The new trade theory explains several features of the current development of EU's trade with CEECs better than the Heckscher-Ohlin model. In 1997, CEECs participated in the European economy with levels of intraindustry trade comparable to peripheral EU countries. However, this induced increased specialization in EU countries, which contrasts with the development in the previous decades. The development of intraindustry trade is positively related to the growth of wages and negatively to interest rates.