Zmiany w handlu zagranicznym krajów bałtyckich po wejściu do Unii Europejskiej
Changes in foreign trade of the Baltic countries after accession to the EU

Summary/Abstract: Background: Foreign trade is the area in which the effects of the Baltic countries’ (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) accession to the European Union manifested themselves relatively quickly. Basically, the liberalization of trade with the Member States and the adoption of the principles of a common trade policy with third party countries resulted in the changing of the terms of trade with all countries from. These changes, according to integration theory, should result in the cre¬ation of as well as the shifting of trade streams.Research purpose: The purpose of the analysis in this article is to demonstrate that the indicated changes resulting from economic integration were factors that influenced the size and structure of foreign trade in the Baltic States. Methods: The total commodity turnover and its division into product types according to the SITC classification were analyzed. Attention was particularly focused on the share of intra-Community trade to overall trade, as well as changes in the exchange of goods between the Baltic countries and the rest of the world. The research period covers the years 2005–2018, and the data for the calculations was taken from the Eurostat database. Conclusions: The study reveals that the effect of creating trade was more visible before the accession of the Baltic countries to the integration group than after. There was also a shift of trade towards non-Community trade, while internal trade shifted towards new member states.

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