The countries of the Southeast Europe region have the common objective of joining the European Union (EU). To achieve this goal, these countries have pursued closer integration with the EU and with each other, including signing the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). CEFTA aims to fully liberalize trade in the region and work toward greater cooperation in a number of trade-related areas, such as investment, services, public procurement, and intellectual property rights. This paper aims to help policy makers in Southeast Europe assess the impact of the recently introduced trade policy measures, and proposes actions that could complement these measures and help achieve greater regional trade integration. The paper considers intra-regional trade flows and the remaining nontariff barriers to trade, the benefits of allowing free movement of skilled labor in the region, and how adopting the EU's Common External Tariff could prevent trade diversion.

Regional trade agreements (RTAs) are not new, but their complexity and importance in global economics and politics has grown exponentially in the past two decades. Tackling this daunting proliferation head on, this book provides a much-needed guide to RTAs. Setting current regional agreements in their economic, political, and historical context, David A. Lynch describes and compares every significant RTA, region by region. He clearly explains their intricate inner workings, their webs of collaboration and conflict, and their primary goals and effectiveness. Lynch's deeply knowledgeable study bridges the ideological divides in scholarly and public debate, including economists' emphases on markets and efficiency versus antiglobalization activists' concerns over inequality and social ills. By building a middle ground between micro and macro analysis and clarifying technical terminology, this concise and accessible book will be an invaluable reference for all readers.

This edited volume brings together original scientific studies on current economic and developmental issues in the Balkan region, and is composed of papers by 25 authors from seven different countries. The Balkan region has gained significant interest in recent years due to its location and strategic position, representing a doorway to Europe, and the region’s stability and progress have direct consequences on various European countries. Because of this strategic position, there is currently much debate regarding a potential partnership of the Balkan states with the European Union. This book offers insights into the current economic and developmental status of the countries in this region, offering a series of chapters that analyse the area from a variety of perspectives. It begins with a discussion on the recent history of the region, especially with reference to the former Yugoslavia and its break-up after the turbulence experienced in 1990s. Other sections are complementary to each other in that they offer comparisons of the Balkan states in their economic progress at the micro and macro levels. Topics such as European integration policies and effects, economic transition, regional trade, tax incentive policy, regional capital markets, regional development agencies and systems, remittances and foreign aid contributions, import-export policies, fiscal policies, analysis of regional microfinance, and the tourism sectors are explored in detail throughout the book.

The Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) was concluded among the countries of Southeastern Europe with the aim to promote further trade integration. The agreement states the objective to 'expand trade in goods and services and foster investment by means of fair, clear, stable and predictable rules.' While recent literature on trade in the CEFTA region has focused on analyzing trade in goods, the purpose of the paper is to identify the remaining barriers to trade in services among the CEFTA countries. The paper presents: (i) the economic and trade importance of the service sector in CEFTA countries, and (ii) the existing barriers to trade in services between CEFTA countries, with a focus on four sectors: construction, land transport, legal and information technology (ICT) services. The analysis shows that the export of services has a significant share in CEFTA countries. These countries have achieved considerable market openness, mostly in the context of pursuing WTO and EU accession. Nonetheless, obstacles to trade in services remain. Some, such as the movement of professional workers, are of general nature, while others are sector specific.

Owing to the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 and subsequently the Eurozone crisis, the accession of Central and Eastern European countries to the European Union and the Eurozone has not been an easy one. The EU's Eastward Enlargement analyses challenges that these countries currently face in their pursuit of economic self-reliance. Covering a period from the second half of the 1980s to the present, Yoji Koyama provides unique and objective analyses of the European Union and the Euro system from a non-European's perspective. He offers a detailed reexamination of the fundamental problems of the European Union, which in turn have affected the autonomous development of countries such as Poland, the former Yugoslavia, Albania, and the Baltic States. This book is a useful addition to the scholarship available on the Euro system and Central and Eastern European countries. It will help readers gain a more holistic understanding of the ongoing Eurozone crisis and the future of the Eurozone project.

The report examines recent trends in Croatia's in trade, productivity, innovation performance and policy governance framework, to help identify priorities for the development of the country's Smart Specialization Strategy, which is an ex-ante conditionality for access to the EU's Structural and Investment Funds over the 2014-20 programming period.

Azan on the Moon is an in-depth anthropological study of people's lives along the Pamir Highway in eastern Tajikistan. Constructed in the 1930s in rugged high-altitude terrain, the road fundamentally altered the material and social fabric of this former Soviet outpost on the border with Afghanistan and China. The highway initially brought sentiments of disconnection and hardship, followed by Soviet modernization and development, and ultimately a sense of distinction from bordering countries and urban centers that continues to this day. Based on extensive fieldwork and through an analysis of construction, mobility, technology, media, development, Islam, and the state, Till Mostowlansky shows how ideas of modernity are both challenged and reinforced in contemporary Tajikistan. In the wake of China's rise in Central Asia, people along the Pamir Highway strive to reconcile a modern future with a modern past. Weaving together the road, a population, and a region, Azan on the Moon presents a rich ethnography of global connections

This toolkit provides a novel approach and a set of tools for policymakers and analysts to identify non-tariff measures (NTMs), assess their trade restrictiveness and impact on prices and welfare, and to strengthen the institutional coordination mechanism, transparency, and regulatory governance on NTMs.

This book highlights the future threat to Asia from a broader perspective that takes account of the Japanese and Asian financial crises during the 1990s as well as the global crisis of 2008. It reveals that Asian crises take many diverse forms, and that the solutions devised to date have only been locally and not universally effective. Policymakers are accordingly advised to always plan for the element of surprise.

The book was prepared by the academics and doctoral students of the Faculty of International Business and Economics of the Poznań University of Economics and Business to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the University and the 10th anniversary of the Faculty itself. The subject of this Volume reflects the variety of issues that are researched by academics from all departments of the Faculty. The rationale for publishing this Volume was to signal current work and research progress in the area of international economics, business and management. As the title of the Volume suggests, we need to anticipate changes and implement a new approach to face the challenges in the world economy for it is transforming in an unprecedented way now, at a fast pace, and the global economic map is constantly redrawing. Papers published in this Volume are written by individual authors and workgroups. They are results of research conducted in departments and have been assigned to eight chapters discussing crucial aspects of the world economy. The deliberations are held on a micro- and macroeconomic level in both theoretical and empirical terms. We hope that the contents of individual papers will inspire both readers and authors themselves to make further studies, to carry out follow-up research, to network with one another in order to find answers to the most important problems of the world economy and international business.