It is quite widely believed that well developed clusters are vehicles for competitiveness and innovation. In the paper we test a hypothesis that occurrence of strong clusters in a country’s agro-food sector is positively related to its international competitiveness. Using the European Cluster...

This paper explores the effect of exchange rate volatility and of the institutional quality on international trade flows of transition economies in Central European Countries by applying a gravity model of balance panel between 1999 and 2008. The results show that nominal exchange rate...

The paper aims to capture post-accession effects of Romania’s integration in the common market upon the external performances of the agricultural products; the analysis of intra-Community agri-food trade, by commodity groups, highlighted the existing opportunities of the products with...

Geographical Indications (GIs) are names of regions, specific places or, in exceptional cases, countries, used to describe an agricultural product or a foodstuff (EC 510/2006, Art. 2). They have received much attention in the last years not only at the European level, where they stem from, but...

In an earlier paper we interpreted the resolution of the 2005 WTO dispute on GIs as a stalemate and suggested a shift of the balance of power in favor of the pro-GI coalition. Since then, international negotiations continue to be stalled. The record of GIs as a tool for the promotion of rural...

The protection of European Geographical Indications has been a point of conflict between the European Union and the United States for many years. The essential difference is in how GIs should be protected, if they should be protected at all. The US considers that they can be protected as a...

Food markets have become more and more globalized. In parallel, the interest in locally grown food products has evolved rapidly. The question arises as to what market potential domestic food products can develop in a regional market relative to export markets. We examine the relationship between...