DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETITIVENESS OF AGRARIAN TRADE IN SELECTED CENTRAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The paper analyses the development of the positions and of competitiveness of agrarian foreign trades in Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic within the framework of the global market and the internal market of the EU countries with a goal of revealing the factors, which have affected competitiveness of agrarian trade over the past ten years (1999–2008). The outcome of the analysis shows that agrarian trade in the above-described countries has to a significant extent change its value and commodity structures. The main causes of the majority of the changes in the individual characteristics of agrarian foreign trades in the individual analysed countries include the EU enlargement process, the adoption of commitments ensuing from the membership in the EU, as well as orientation of the internal markets of the EU countries. The existing changes have resulted in a dominant share of the 27 EU Member States within the framework of agrarian trade in the individual analysed countries (in excess of 80 percent of agrarian trade in the case of the individual analysed countries have taken place within the EU territory). It is possible to say that there are some differences among the analysed countries, as concerns the development of agrarian trade. The relevant results show that while agrarian trade in Austria and in the Czech Republic constantly continues to strengthen its position, certain weakening of the position is recognised in the case of Hungary