| Abstract [eng] |
It is no exaggeration to claim that the international trade system, alongside the economic and managerial activities of individual enterprises, plays an ever increasing role in the contemporary process of trade relations. This process is further characterised by extensive participation of transnational corporations and government institutions. Lithuania’s accession to the EU has also marked a shift of its export flows in that direction. In its own right the European Union (EU) as one of the largest trading blocks in the world, is engaged in fierce competition with other blocks as well as individual countries for domination in the global products markets. While a special co-ordinating role is played by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), it is the emergence of the Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), particularly in the form of regional trading blocks, that represents the main dynamic development in trade relations. The difficulties of reaching trade agreements are particularly severe between the developed and developing nations, something that the trade negotiations round at Doha illustrated vividly. The path that trade negotiations will take in the future will have a profound effect on the competitiveness of Lithuania’s exports both inside and outside the EU, owing particularly to Lithuania’s status as a small and open economy. The aim of this article is to evaluate the key aspects of the world trade and EU trade system with a view to assess their possible impact on the trends and prospects for Lithuania’s export flows within the EU internal market. The revealed comparative advantage is used to measure the important changes in Lithuania’s export competitiveness over 2004-2008 time frame in the EU internal market and attempt to assess how a possible adoption of new trade measures through Doha trade round could further affect Lithuania’s export competitiveness. |
