Eastern Europe's Trade

The Centre has recently held two workshops in Brussels on Eastern Europe's trade. These formed part of a major CEPR project examining a number of aspects of Eastern Europe's trade patterns and trade relations with the European Union. The project has received financial support from the Commission of the European Communities under its PHARE programme. The first, on `Trade Laws and Institutions for Emerging Market Economies', took place on 16/17 March 1994. It was organized by L Alan Winters, Head of the Trade Policy Division at the World Bank, Professor of Economics at the University of Birmingham and Research Fellow in CEPR's International Trade programme, Joan Pearce, Head of Unit for Eastern Europe in the Directorate for International Economic and Financial Affairs, Commission of the European Communities, and Richard Portes, Director of CEPR and Professor of Economics at Birkbeck College, London. The following papers were presented:

`Trade Policy Institutions and Negotiating Objectives', L Alan Winters (University of Birmingham and CEPR)

`Political Economy Influences on the Trade Regimes and Trade Policies in Central Europe', László Csaba (Institute for Economic Market Research and Informatics, Budapest)

`Competition and Trade Policies in Europe Agreement Signatories', Bernard Hoekman (World Bank and CEPR) and Petros Mavroidis (GATT Secretariat)

`Industrial Policy and Trade Policy', David Audretsch (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung and CEPR)

`The Europe Agreements: Implications for Trade Laws and Institutions. Lessons from Hungary', André Sapir (European Centre for Advanced Research in Economics (ECARE), Université Libre de Bruxelles, and CEPR)

`CEECs' Trade Laws in the Light of International Experience', Patrick Messerlin (Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris)

`Trade Law and Environmental Issues in Central and Eastern European Countries', Michael Rauscher (Universität Kiel and CEPR)

The second, on `Trade with Central and Eastern Europe: Its Impact on Members of the EC', took place on 13/14 April 1994. It was organized by Riccardo Faini, Professor of Economics at the Università degli Studi di Brescia and Research Fellow at the Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research, Milan, and in CEPR's International Trade programme, Joan Pearce and Richard Portes. The following papers were presented:

`The Liberalisation of European Steel Trade', L Alan Winters (University of Birmingham and CEPR)

`Trade Liberalisation with Central and Eastern Europe: Some Distribution Issues', Damien Neven (Université de Lausanne and CEPR)

`Comparative Advantage and Likely Trade Pattern of the CEECs', László Halpern (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) and Dariusz Rosati (UN Economic Commission for Europe, Geneva)
`France and the CEECs: Adjusting to Another Enlargement', Olivier Cadot (INSEAD) and Jaime de Melo (Université de Genève and CEPR)

`Trade with Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of Greece', Sophia Dimelis (Athens University of Economics and Business) and Konstantine Gatsios (Athens University of Economics and Business and CEPR)

`Will Eastern Europe Divert Foreign Direct Investment from Spain?', Jordi Gual (Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa, Barcelona, and CEPR)

`The Impact of Trade with Central and East European Countries on Spain', Carmela Martín (Universidade Complutense and Fundación FIES, Madrid)

`Textiles and Clothing', Cristina Corado (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)