REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND REGIONAL COOPERATION
2.5. Export competitiveness to EU markets
The European Union is the most important export destination for all observed countries.
That is why in this part of the paper the emphasis is on the analysis of export competitiveness
to EU markets. As an indicator of export competitiveness we use the ratio between the
export share of individual product i to observed markets and total import of that product
from observed market. The comparison of the export competitiveness between domestic
production activities is shown in figure 2.
Figure 2: The indicator of total export competitiveness to EU 25 markets
0,40
0,35
0,30
0,25
0,20
0,15
0,10
0,05
-
2002 2004 2006
Source: COMEXT, own calculations.
Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Macedonia Serbia and Montenegro
According to the total indicator of competitiveness Croatia has the best position to the EU
25 markets relative to the other observed countries. Macedonia has the lowest value of
the indicator. Although Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro
have significantly lower levels of total competitiveness to the EU 25 than Croatia, there are
positive trends in the growth of competitiveness. More detailed view about competitiveness
is shown in table 5 where the competitiveness of individual economic sectors is shown.
The obtained results lead to the conclusion that Croatia has a significantly better position in
terms of EU-25 markets compared to other countries. All countries improved their position
to EU markets from 2002 to 2006 in agricultural products. While Croatia faced deteriorating
the export competitiveness in textiles and clothing, Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro
improved competitiveness in these sectors. The characteristic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
is a significant improvement of export competitiveness in transport equipment.
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