REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

CEFTA-2006 TRADE COOPERATION
Table 2: Trade within the region of SEE, 2006 or 2007 (per cent of total)
Albania 1)
Bosnia &
Macedo - Monte -
Serbia &
Herzego - Croatia 2) nia
vina 2) negro Serbia1) Montenegro
1) 2)
Kosovo 2)
Ex.
Im.
Ex.
Im.
Ex.
Im.
Ex.
Im.
Ex.
Im.
Ex.
Im.
Ex.
Im.
Ex.
Im.
Albania 1)
-
-
0.3
1
1.6
1.6
5
0.9
Bosnia &
Herzego -
vina 2)
0.32
0.054
20.86
18.50
0.1
0.97
2.75
0.124
9.93
4.27
0.93
0.53
Croatia 2)
0.28
0.01
14.4
2.85
0.95
0.86
1.25
0.03
5.36
1.27
Macedonia
2)
2.17
0.37
2.62
0.66
4.88
2.1
0.82
0.03
19.05
8.58
Montenegro
1)
1.63
0.23
4.55
2.76
1.4
4.07
0.32
1.05
27.41 3)
27.12 3)
Kosovo 2)
12.6
2.2
3.2
1.9
1.1
2.5
10.5
15.1
1.8
1.0
11.7
14.1
Serbia 1)
0.97
0.006
12.2
2.8
4.0
2.87
4.5
1.67
11.7
0.72
Source: Calculations are made according to original data obtained from INSTAT
(Albania Institute of Statistics); Bosnia and Herzegovina Statistical Office;
Central Bureau of Statistics, Croatia; State Statistical Office of the
Republic of Macedonia; The Statistical Office of the Republic of Montenegro;
The Statistical Office of Kosovo; Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia.
Note: 1) Data is for 2006; 2) Data is for 2007; 3) It includes Kosovo as well
In order to check such a hypothesis, we look closer into the SEE trade data for the years
2007 or 2006 (results are shown in Table 2) and compare them with the results for the year
1996 when it was shown that history induced trade diversion to the Region (Sekulovska-
Gaber 2003, p.300). But, before proceeding further with the analysis we need to clarify
certain things. Firstly, since Romania and Bulgaria entered the EU in 2007 and are no
more members of CEFTA, they are not included in the analysis. The second thing is the
participation of three independent entities (Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo) in the “place”
of Yugoslavia, with the explanation that, if not taken into consideration the declaration
of independence of Montenegro, according to the data of some sources, Serbia and
Montenegro were taken together.
While in 1996, for many SEE countries other countries “in the group” were not important
trading partner (a lot of zeros, with an exception perhaps for Republic of Macedonia),
mostly because of the inherited divisions, general underdevelopment and overall security
problems, figures in Table 2 show that the low levels of trade between SEE countries
were overtaken and the “neighbours are back” for most of the countries in the Region (for
Albania it is Serbia and Montenegro; for Bosnia and Herzegovina it is Croatia, and vice
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