ABSTRACT
Given the growing intensity of economic interactions throughout the world economy, business people, labor leaders and policy makers have become more concerned with the competitiveness of their countries’ exports. The international trade literature concerning our region presents a wide range of the characteristics of export patterns of the new EU member states, especially the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. These patterns are also compared to those of the four cohesion countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain). The literature concentrates on determinants of trade patterns, such as the factor content of trade flows and the quality of the manufacturing sector, in which industries operate (see Landesmann (2002); Havlik (2000); and Borbély (2004, 2005)).
