Changes in the trade of Central and Eastern Europe with Russia under the conditions of the EU membership

Abstrakt: The trade of the CEE countries with Russia was shaped after 2004 in the new conditions related to the accession of those countries to the EU. The trade relations were also influenced by other factors related to the economic cycle, situation on the fuel markets, developing integration in the area of the former USSR and accession of Russia to the WTO. This paper aims at indicating the major trends in the trade with Russia which emerged after the CEE countries joined the EU. The data on the trade of the CEE countries after 2004 indicates that Russia has become increasingly significant for their exports and imports. The annual average growth in the trade with Russia was definitely higher for most of the CEE countries than the change in their trade with the countries from outside the EU and total trade. Admittedly, the change rate of the CEE exports to the Russian market is clearly faster than the import growth. Those trends in the trade of the CEE countries allow us to forecast that the role of Russia in their foreign trade will be increasingly significant.