English Summary (full report in German language) In general, the competitiveness of an individual enterprise is a matter of its ability to maintain or increase its market share over the longer term. Expressed in different terms, competitiveness is an enterprise's capacity to remain profitable...

This paper analyses the production structure or intra-industry trade specialization (IIT) of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia in foreign trade with EU member states from 1995 to 2001 at the five-digit level of the SITC. The results confirmed that former CEFTA countries...

As manufacturing tariffs have fallen worldwide, the focus of free trade agreements has shifted towards other issues, including: rules governing foreign investment, e-commerce regulations, trade in services, harmonization of technical standards, sanitary and phyto-sanitary regulations, and the...

World fresh vegetable trade increased more than fourfold between 1962 and 1982. The major trading areas include virtually the entire world- Latin America, the United States, Canada, the European Community, the Middle East, the Far East, Africa, and the non-EC Western European nations. An...

The signature of free trade agreements between the countries of the Balkan region has given these countries' economies more space and makes them much more competitive. These effects are sensitive mainly in the agricultural sector where the volume of trade exchanges in these last 3 years turns...

The Asian Economic Integration Monitor is a semiannual review of Asia’s regional economic cooperation and integration. It covers the 48 regional members of the Asian Development Bank. This issue includes two theme chapters: i) Toward an ASEAN Economic Community– and Beyond; and ii) World...

After several years of informal and formal negotiations, South Korea and the United States reached an agreement to move towards free trade in April 2007. Currently, both countries await congressional approval before the agreement can be implemented. This study explains the substance of the...

The European Union (EU) represents a large and highly integrated bloc which contributed 19.4% of global GDP and over 30% of global exports in 2012. As of July 1, 2013 it consists of 28 member states. All of them belong to the customs union and the Single European Market (SEM) in which most...

We show that global trade negotiations can prevent global free trade. In a simple model where global tariff negotiations precede sequential Free Trade Agreement (FTA), we show FTA formation can expand all the way to global free trade in the absence of global tariff negotiations but global free...