ABSTRACT
The United States is Europe’s biggest trading partner (see Chapter 17) and has been for some time. However, European policy makers and businesses are giving greater attention to what are commonly termed ‘emerging’ or ‘transitional’ economies. These are economies that are undergoing some form of fundamental change that is enabling them to engage more with the outside world in terms of trade and investment in particular. Examples of the type of change involved include a shift from a closed to a more open,
or the transition from a state/command economy as in CEE (see Chapter 16), Russia and China. These economies are in the process of developing key market institutions and are engaged in ongoing economic reform. They also exhibit trade, investment and GDP growth rates way above the average of the developed world.
