Trade in forest products between European Union and the Central and Eastern European access candidates

Patterns in forest products trade between European Union and Central and Eastern European access candidates were studied. The results indicated that both production and trade of forest products in Central and Eastern European countries in transition have considerably increased during the 1990s. The European Union has been the most important trading partner for CEE countries, even though the EU share from the external trade has been quite stable. The gravity models estimated explained approximately 66% of the variation in volume of bilateral trade flows in EU and CEE countries in 1997. Results indicated that trade between EU and CEE countries was below the level that would be expected on the basis of income and distance. A model separating the trade flows according to direction suggested that this is due to the low intensity of West–East trade, which probably originates in low levels of consumption of higher value-added products in CEE countries. East–West trade did not significantly differ from the average pattern.