THE COMPETITIVE POSITIONS OF POLAND AND OF THE COUNTRIES OF THE WESTERN BALKANS IN AGRI-FOOD TRADE WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to compare the competitive positions of Poland and of six
countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) in their trade in agri-food products with the
European Union (EU) in 2010–2015. To this end, the synthetic trade
competitiveness index (CI) was created, being the arithmetic average of two
normalised indices of the competitive position, i.e. the trade coverage index (TC)
and the Balassa revealed comparative advantages index (RCA). The study is based
on the trade data from the WITS – World Integrated Trade Solution database
(Comtrade, HS – Harmonised System 2002), expressed in USD. Agri-food
products are understood as products classified in chapters 01–24 of the Harmonised
Commodity Description and Coding System (HS). The research results show that
only in trade of 5 product groups no country from the Western Balkans competed
with Poland in the EU market. In other product groups which were competitive in
Polish exports Poland competed in the EU market with some of the Western
Balkan countries.